


Idle Hunger

by werebird



Series: Beach Plum Bank [1]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Biting, Concussions, Declarations Of Love, Established Relationship, Gender-Neutral Venom Symbiote (Marvel), Intimacy, Jealousy, Masturbation, Mild Painplay, Milkshakes, On the Run, Other, Possessive Behavior, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), References to Depression, Relationship Issues, Rimming, Slow Burn, Steve is old but Eddie doesn't know yet, Weight Gain, the plot more than the romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-21
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:22:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 51,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27660629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/werebird/pseuds/werebird
Summary: Captain America had been missing for months now, disappearing right after his legendary battle with Thanos. Rumors had spread that he had died, but Eddie did not believe in rumors. He believed in evidence. Heroes or not, Thanos aside, Steve Rogers and his little gang were still technically fugitives.Not that Eddie cared particularly. He was a reporter and all he cared about was the truth and a good headline. And sniffing out Captain America's whereabouts was going to get his name on the byline of a huge cover story.
Relationships: Eddie Brock/Venom Symbiote, James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Series: Beach Plum Bank [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2028022
Comments: 42
Kudos: 115





	1. Chapter 1

Sitting in his car, Eddie blew hot air from deep within his lungs onto his freezing hands before rubbing them together to generate additional warmth. There was definitely a blue shadow beneath his nails by now, and as he moved his fingers over the small display at the back of his camera, they felt stiff and slow to react. 

This stakeout was going to kill him. It had been hours with no sighting of the person he was waiting to catch sight of. The man with the metal arm. James Barnes. The Winter Soldier. 

He looked over to the passenger seat, to the blurry and badly lit pictures that were sent to him by one of his old sources in law enforcement. For weeks now he had been following Barnes's trail, hoping it would lead back to the story he was actually chasing. Where was Captain America? 

Captain America had been missing for months now, for over a year. He disappeared right after his legendary battle with Thanos, never to be seen again. But nothing on this earth vanished entirely, well not since the snap, but even those people were eventually recovered. Eddie included. 

Everything had been quiet since. Suspiciously quiet. Politics, news, gossip. Everything had run dry. People were afraid of conflict now, for better or worse. 

Rumors had spread that Steve Rogers had died, but there was nothing to dig up aside from those hushed words. No records, no body, no grave. Eddie did not believe in rumors. He believed in evidence. That's why he was here, that's why he had taken up the initial tip and then followed some vague sightings from upstate New York, through Vermont and New Hampshire all the way to the farthest parts of northeastern Maine, into a small town called Easbell. 

He needed a good story or he would soon be out of a job. His editor was fed up with him chasing ghosts and turning up empty handed. The first few months after Thanos and the return of the vanished, Eddie had written every crap story assigned to him, desperate to keep his job. He had missed five years of current events and so he was last in line at every briefing. Luckily, his reputation and that of The Brock Report had magically survived within the realms of investigative journalism despite those years he had missed. Otherwise he wouldn't have gotten the job in the first place. 

Six months in, he had finally grown enough balls to suggest a story he'd gotten wind of accidentally: Clint Barton, renowned avenger turned vicious vigilante in the wake of the snap. Eddie's initial research had turned up boxes full of unsolved cases carrying the same M.O., silent ruthless massacres brought about by a katana blade. 

But he hadn't gotten anywhere with his pursuit of Clint Barton. Every string of paperwork filed under his name ended with Barton agreeing to be placed under house arrest sometime before the snap for violating the Sokovia Accords and aiding Captain America in his crimes. But no records could be discovered of where exactly Barton's house was located. The details of those crimes were sealed now, but it was easy to put two and two together. Rogers and Barnes, best friends since childhood, both of them presumed dead for almost a century, until Rogers reappeared, dug out from the ice and years later a picture is released to the public in the wake of a terrorist attack: A shot of Barnes, exposing him as the perpetrator. Later both of them are arrested, both of them disappear. Once before and then again after the snap and after Thanos's defeat. And not just them. 

Aside from Scott Lang, who had completed his house arrest before the snap, and Sharon Carter, who had vanished in the snap but was sanctioned to desk duty for the remainder of her career after her return, every single person of Rogers's old crew was unaccounted for: Barton, an ex airforce guy named Sam Wilson, secret agent and whistleblower Natasha Romanoff as well as Sokovia survivor Wanda Maximoff. 

And Eddie knew there was a story there. A huge story about the rise and fall of Earth's mightiest heroes. And he knew that if he managed to get his hands on just one, the rest of their hideouts would unravel in a chain reaction. 

He had spent days and nights on his research, talking to everyone he could reach, even Lang and Carter herself without any results. By then his editor had grown tired of listening to his theories and refused to pay for any further travels. But then Eddie had received the tip about a possible Barnes sighting along with some details and those blurry pictures taken off a security camera. 

Heroes or not, Thanos aside, Steve Rogers and his little gang were still technically fugitives and they had yet to stand trial for their crimes. For those five years, the justice system might have been on hold, with half of the world's population gone, but the warrants were still active and the benches were slowly beginning to refill with judges. 

So things could get interesting soon. Not that Eddie cared particularly. Morally. He wasn't working for the police. He was a reporter and all he cared about was bringing the truth to light. Okay, the truth and a good headline. And sniffing out Captain America's whereabouts was going to get his name on the byline of a huge cover story. 

The new lead had appeased his editor and Eddie had been allowed back on the road. But he needed to discover something solid or he would lose his editor's endorsement. 

"We're cold, Eddie," Venom whined from deep within Eddie's chest. They even sounded small. Eddie could feel the symbiote curled up and cushioned between his organs where all his body heat was stored. 

"Go back to sleep," Eddie told them and picked up his camera again. 

The metal arm guy, Barnes, had been a pain in the ass to find, dude was practically a ghost. He had been careful not to show either his face or his arm around cameras, eyes hidden under some baseball cap and with his hands in his pockets. He made an effort to appear perfectly forgettable. His only problem was that he was somewhat oblivious to the fact that he was good looking. That was how Eddie had managed to find him. Barnes wasn't forgettable at all. Clerks and cashiers always remembered him once Eddie prompted them with the blurry pictures. They had insisted he was unusually polite with a nice smile, showing manners that felt almost outdated. Apparently, his voice was memorable too as well as the way he spoke. With just the hint of a foreign accent. So Eddie was told. He hadn't heard Barnes speak yet. He hadn't caught a glimpse of him yet. But he could feel that he was getting close. 

"We weren't sleeping," Venom said and Eddie frowned at that. He knew that technically Venom didn't need sleep, not like people did, but they'd been together long enough for Venom to somehow begin mimicking the distinct behavior along the way. 

"No?" Eddie asked, shifting in his seat. His back was starting to hurt from the position. "You've been quiet though. What have you been up to?" 

"Nothing," Venom insisted, but they sounded coy enough that Eddie raised his eyebrows in suspicion. 

"Nothing, huh?" he echoed, trying to focus on the parking lot in front of them. "This is pointless," he muttered and tossed the camera onto the passenger seat. He flinched as soon as it hit the upholstery, feeling guilty for his carelessness. He couldn't afford a new one, if this one got damaged. Gently, he picked it back up for examination, relieved to see he hadn't been too rough. "You know what?" he started again. "How about we get something to eat?" 

Venom came to life at once and Eddie smiled at the sensation. In addition to the slightly tingling rush that Venom sent through his body, reconquering most of its parts, a pleasant heat spread in its wake even down to the toes. 

"Can we get lobster, Eddie?" the symbiote asked excitedly. "We saw a sign on the way." 

Eddie huffed as he scooped the papers up into a pile before he shoved them into a worn out manila folder, then grabbed his camera because he knew better than to leave valuables in the car and unlocked the door. 

"Some other time, okay love?" he offered on his way out. "Promise." He most likely needed to turn this story into a best-selling book before he could afford enough lobster to satisfy his symbiote, but he liked to believe anything was possible. 

He looked left and right before jogging over the road behind the parking lot where he'd spotted a diner among the shops earlier, a cheaper and thus better option for tonight. 

From what he could see through the windows, the diner was busy enough for them to not draw attention, but with enough tables available for them to pick a quiet spot and be undisturbed. 

"Where do you wanna sit?" Eddie asked, before he pulled the entry door open. 

"By the window," Venom told him, their voice resounding through Eddie's head more than his ears. 

Eddie checked the empty booths and then picked the last one, furthest from the door. He sat with his back towards the wall so he could keep an eye out the window as well as the booth next to them, making sure no one listened in or paid too much attention to the papers he'd taken with him. 

It wasn't dark outside yet, but the sky had already turned into a grayish dark blue and the last bit of daylight would soon be gone. It wasn't even five yet. 

He held out the menu in front of him. Venom still struggled with reading, but Eddie wanted them to have a chance to look at the pictures. If things had been different, if they hadn't lost five years, Venom adapting to human society might have progressed further already. But things were what they were and Eddie tried not to dwell on it. Some things even he had to relearn after five years of nothingness. It didn't matter how fast they had gone by. 

A young woman waiting tables walked up to the booth and set a tall glass of water down in front of him. 

"Hi, I'm Sandy," she said with a smile, although her name tag read Alex. "What can I get you?" 

"Uh," Eddie stalled, hoping Venom would take the cue and make a choice. But they remained silent. Once more, suspiciously silent. "Can I have some coffee too?" he asked, then wiggled the menu. "While I take another minute?"

"Sure," Sandy said and left him to it. 

Worried that the symbiote wouldn't decide for them, Eddie began scanning the options himself. "What's up, love?" he asked gently, muttering to himself. He didn't know why he felt the need to speak out, but Venom didn't seem particularly fond of sharing thoughts today. 

A tiny tendril appeared from beneath Eddie's sleeve and found its way to the laminated sheet of paper in Eddie's hand, tracing the lines of a couple of letters. 

"What does it say?" Venom asked as Eddie squinted at the words. Maybe he was tired, maybe he had trouble focussing on things that weren't related to his investigation, maybe he needed glasses. 

"It says Greek salad, love," Eddie said quietly. "You don't like that." He felt stupid for a second, talking to Venom as if they were a child and not some thousand year old lethal alien creature. He chose to believe he didn't need glasses but had instead automatically skipped reading that section, knowing it wasn't of interest. "How about this one?" he asked, tapping lightly on a picture of a chocolate milkshake with his thumb. 

Venom hummed. Whether they were agreeing or contemplating, Eddie couldn't tell. 

"Your coffee," Sandy said, suddenly back at the table. Startled, Eddie sat up a little straighter and pulled his elbows off the table. "Did you find something?" she asked after setting a generous cup down. 

"Yeah," Eddie said, giving Venom another second to make their preferences known. "Any chance you still serve breakfast?" he wondered, smiling as he did so in hopes he wouldn't come off as a high maintenance customer. 

With the back of her pen on the menu, Sandy pointed to a line at the top of the breakfast section that read "All Day Saturday & Sunday". 

That didn't help much, because Eddie hat no fucking idea what day it was. For weeks now every day had been the same, aimlessly driving and asking around, following the thinning tail, skimming through local newspaper articles and online ads. 

"So that's a no?" he asked, looking up at Sandy apologetically. 

She tilted her head before turning around, glancing towards a calendar behind the counter. She had to squint her eyes too. "No," she said, still slightly angled away from their booth. "That's a yes," she told him, turning back towards the table. "It's Saturday." The fact that she had to double check herself made Eddie feel slightly better. Maybe her week had been an endless row of similar days as well. She also didn't seem too fazed by the fact that Eddie had lost track of days which he noted with relief. He couldn't draw too much attention to himself. Nobody liked strangers snooping around. 

"Great," he said, giving the menu another quick once over. "Then, one french toast combo with extra ham and hash browns on the side and the chocolate milkshake, please." 

Sandy didn't bother to write it down, just nodded and made a move to turn around when Eddie changed his mind. 

"You know, make that two chocolate milkshakes," he said and leaned back, offering her another smile. He shrugged in a 'what can you do?' fashion and watched her return his shrug. 

"Sure," she said. "Anything else?" 

Eddie shook his head. "That should be it." 

He watched Sandy head over behind the counter and pass his order on to someone in the kitchen. 

"Two, Eddie?" Venom asked curiously and Eddie noted with satisfaction that they even sounded cautiously excited. 

"One for you and one for me," Eddie just said, and reached for the cup to sip on his coffee. The symbiote shuddered even before Eddie got his lips on it, but they didn't protest. 

It was an old habit from his better days in journalism when the stories he chased through sleepless nights actually got him somewhere. He hoped the taste would end up inspiring him. 

Venom wasn't particularly fond of caffeine because they didn't need it to stay up or remain alert and because it messed with their body in a similar fashion alcohol did. It had been a long while since Eddie had gotten smashed and hungover. 

"Did she see us?" Eddie asked, glancing over to where Sandy was serving burgers to a table on the opposite side of the diner. 

"No," Venom said, decisive enough that Eddie trusted their judgement. "We knew she was coming," they added, but that sixth sense had passed by Eddie's consciousness today. He was fucking exhausted. 

He rubbed a hand over his eyes and forehead before looking over to the parking lot across the street. The pickup truck was still standing there like an oversized item in the lost and found. 

Maybe the gas station manager from a few towns over had gotten the truck wrong. Maybe it was too much of a cliché. A used up truck that most likely changed hands too many times, paid for with cash and fixed up sporadically by unskilled hands. Eddie made a mental note to check if Easbell had a local garage or a shop with an owner or mechanic he could ask about the car. It looked old, so chances were high it had needed some work done over the past few years. 

Movement in his peripheral vision pulled Eddie from his thoughts and he put his hand protectively over the camera so it wouldn't slide off the table. "That's expensive," he told Venom and watched another small tendril retreat into his sleeve. He hated that he had used this tone again, addressing the symbiote as if they were a toddler. 

It was time to set the investigation aside, just momentarily, and even if not entirely, then still decisive enough to focus on the most important relationship in his life. He had been preoccupied for too long, barely giving Venom the affection they needed. Usually the symbiote had no qualms badgering Eddie for attention, but they had been unusually quiet for days now, pouting maybe and harboring hurt. 

"Sorry," he mumbled, put his chin on his hand and the elbow back on the table. "We should just get a room for the night and call it a day," he said, taking in the surroundings. He couldn't remember passing a motel, but with how close this town was to the coastline and the New Brunswick border, it would surprise him if it would take long to find one. This seemed like a good place for vacationing tourists to spend the summer months. 

This time he could feel Venom piquing up when Sandy was on her way towards them, tray in hand. 

"There you go," she said, setting the food and the milkshakes down in front of him. "Enjoy," she added and was gone a second later. She didn't seem keen on lingering too long at the table and Eddie couldn't blame her. Most likely, she feared that he would try and strike up a conversation, flirt even, given the opportunity that he was seemingly alone and she was forced to be polite. 

The food looked great and Eddie only noticed now how hungry he was which meant that Venom had probably been starving for hours. 

"Come on, eat up," he told them, using his fingers to snatch a stripe of bacon and toss it into his mouth. 

Venom was shy, understandably so as they were in public and Eddie used to yell at them for being reckless if they showed too much of themself. So Eddie nudged one of the milkshakes closer to his body and propped his head up against his knuckles, making room and giving cover to the symbiote somewhere in the triangle between elbow, hand and shoulder. 

Maybe he was being reckless now, but he didn't care. He felt a little too guilty to care. 

Instead of trying their luck with the straw, Venom just plunged their tongue into the creamy sweet shake and scooped up most of the whipped cream to balance back into their mouth. 

Eddie smiled to himself as he used his fork this time to get a bite of french toast for his own mouth. It was perfect, still hot and buttery with a hint of cinnamon, and Eddie closed his eyes to enjoy all of that first taste of magic. 

"Eddie, we like this," Venom said and Eddie nodded without hesitation. This was a good moment. A happy moment. 

They ate in silence for a while and when Eddie took the last piece of hash browns from the plate with his hands, tearing off little bits and pieces that he stealthily fed to Venom nestled on the side of his neck, darkness had taken hold of the town outside, the window reflecting only Eddie and a dark shadow just above his shoulder. 

Sandy cleared his plates and one of the milkshake glasses and Eddie thanked her with a silent nod, thinking she might appreciate it if he wouldn't talk to her too much. 

The second glass was still half full, the shake sitting on the table next to the empty coffee cup. Sandy offered a refill, but Eddie declined, determined not to mess with Venom's comfort much more tonight. Plus, he was better off getting some rest soon and have his symbiote do the same. 

He had just asked Sandy for the check when the door to the diner opened and Eddie's gaze fell onto a man that vaguely resembled the one in the pictures he'd been sent. Barnes.

Instantly, Eddie slouched down in his seat and scooted further towards the window while sliding his folder from the table onto the bench. He kept his eyes on the guy, but subtly though and held his breath as he watched him step up to the counter. 

To his surprise Sandy smiled, a true smile that reached her eyes as she nodded at him in recognition. They exchanged a few words and Sandy nodded again, taking down notes as the guy sat down on one of the stools. 

Without looking, as if by accident, Eddie brushed over his camera, pressing the power button for just one second. In the reflection of the window he could see the screen, could vaguely make out the part of the diner that would make it into the picture. If he nudged the camera to get a better shot, he ran the risk of exposing himself or spooking the guy that was already checking out his surroundings every couple of seconds. So far Eddie in his booth didn't seem to catch his attention and Eddie liked for it to stay that way. If he'd snapped a picture now however, he ran the risk of the guy not being in the shot. 

Eddie still wasn't one hundred percent sure that the guy was who he was looking for. The man kept his left hand in the pocket of his jacket as he waited. 

Listening in on Eddie's thoughts and his contemplations, Venom extended the thinnest tendril from the back of Eddie's hand and slid the camera just an inch to the side. The shot was perfect and Eddie pressed his thumb onto the shutter release. 

At just that moment, someone from another table dropped a steak knife that clattered heavily onto the floor and both Eddie and the man by the counter jumped in their seats. 

The noise got the guy's attention more prominently though and Eddie used the momentary distraction to grab his camera off the table and hide it by his side. 

"Fuck," Eddie muttered, heart racing, as he saw Sandy walking up to his table, her expression stern. His mind began scrambling, trying to come up with excuses, with explanations, but even before he had a chance to open his mouth, she just dropped off the check and was already on her way to the table that had caused the irritation. 

Eddie didn't want to leave, but staying much longer now would be suspicious. Plus, he really wanted to avoid being seen by this guy. He paid with crumpled bills but left Sandy a generous tip, then slid out of the booth, careful to keep his camera hidden. Venom immediately relieved him of that task though, holding the camera close to Eddie's side and camouflaging it with a thin layer of their alien body. Eddie used his free hands to grab the folder from the seat and went on to pretend something was itching on his temple to keep his face out of sight. 

The cold air hit him unexpectedly once they were outside, but Eddie couldn't stop his body from doing a little jump in excitement and relief. 

"Yes!" he cheered for himself, almost spilling the printouts all over the pavement. "Thanks, love," he said as he felt Venom balancing out his movements. He hurried back to his own car, unlocking the door with uneasy fingers. 

Venom didn't answer. 

Once they were in the car Eddie immediately went for the camera, eager to zoom into the picture he'd taken. But when his fingers reached the concealed shape by his side they brushed only over more of Venom's distinct body matter, the texture as familiar as his own skin by now. 

"Come on, love," he urged softly. "Give it back." 

Reluctantly, Venom retreated from the camera case, freeing it for Eddie's hands. 

"Thanks," Eddie said, already pressing the power button. He pulled up the most recent picture on the camera roll. "Fuck yes," he exclaimed in relief, letting his fist bump off the steering wheel twice before tapping his knuckles against the roof of the car. He shook his excitement off to concentrate back on the screen, zooming onto the man by the counter. "That's him," he confirmed for himself. "That's Barnes, the guy with the metal arm." 

Granted, the metal arm wasn't visible at all, but the similarities were too striking to be a coincidence. His facial features, his height and frame, the baseball cap. The blurry photos had come into focus in this one. Plus, he fit the descriptions all too well, the polite smile he'd offered Sandy, his patient and gentle mannerisms, the mixture of looks and charm that had Eddie captured all the way from the counter to his booth. 

Eddie looked up from the camera, covering the screen with his palm to dim the illuminated display, when movement disrupted the steady lights in the diner. It was Barnes on his way out. 

"That's a big order for just one man," Eddie noted. The guy was carrying two bags of take out, one under each arm. "Unless he's got a symbiote too," Eddie muttered, Venom's continuing silence giving him pause. He listened into himself, felt through his body, noticed that the symbiote seemed to have coiled up again in his torso mostly, leaving his arms and legs feeling oddly empty and weak. 

Whatever was going on there had to wait though. Eddie held his breath and lowered his body deeper into the shadow of the car as he kept his eyes on the man crossing the street. Barnes kept checking his surroundings, but so far he seemed unaware of Eddie's presence. Still, it meant that they had to be extra careful. That they couldn't let their guard down for one second or they'd be discovered. 

Eddie watched as the guy walked towards the pickup and balanced both bags in a single handed embrace so he could get to his keys. And then there it was. One perfectly shiny hand of dark metal. The most impressive prosthetic Eddie had ever seen in real life. It was with smooth elegance that Barnes sifted through his keys with his artificial hand until he found the one he was looking for to use on his truck. 

Speechless, Eddie watched him climb into the vehicle, so mesmerized that he almost missed the turn of ignition. 

"Shit," he cursed, dumping the camera on the passenger seat once more before straightening up and fumbling with his own set of keys. He waited until the taillights of the pickup pulled into the streets before getting his own car running and starting his tail. 

Keeping his eyes on the road and the vehicle in front of him, Eddie switched the heating on high just before a shiver shook his body. 

"God, why is it so fucking cold up here," he complained, briefly thinking of San Francisco and the life he used to have there. 

But that had been before. 

Five years had changed things. Five years of Anne and Dan without an annoying third wheel and his alien symbiote. Five years of grief and rebuilding and moving on. Only for him to come back and disrupt everything once more. 

He gripped the steering wheel to pass his frustration onto a lifeless object instead. He was tired of carrying it. They were. 

"You okay there, love?" Eddie asked tentatively as he followed the pickup truck through the town, keeping his distance. 

"We're hungry, Eddie," Venom just said. They shared a body but the symbiote seemed out of reach. 

"I know," Eddie muttered defeated. He knew they'd just eaten, but Venom didn't need food, they needed Eddie's brain to function well. Produce all sorts of delicious chemicals. But over the past months, his brain had mostly produced depressing thoughts. And it was affecting both of them. 

He had hoped the progress on their story from tonight, the adrenaline and the subsequent feeling of achievement would have at least been snack-worthy, but Venom didn't seem to think so. If worse came to worst, he would have to find a poor soul to donate their brain. The thought didn't sit well with Eddie, but there were no limits to the lengths he'd go to to keep Venom alive. 

"Us too, Eddie," Venom chimed in suddenly. "We won't let you starve either." So although they had been distant, they were awake and had been paying attention to Eddie's thoughts. 

Eddie smiled, suppressing a yawn as exhaustion followed up on all that excitement. He blinked a couple of times to get his mind back on the story, but it was too late. 

The pickup had taken a turn and Eddie had missed it. All he could do without giving himself away was watching the pickup in his rearview mirror until it disappeared out of sight, making a mental note of the location. They would have to come back tomorrow and see where that road led to. 

"At least we know this is his car," Eddie said, trying to keep his brain from spiraling into thoughts of failure and self-blame. "And we know that he likes junk food and possibly hides out nearby." He didn't say the 'for now' out loud but thought it nonetheless. "Possibly with someone else." 


	2. Chapter 2

Eddie smiled apologetically at the old man in thick glasses working the overheated crammy office that constituted the front desk at the Oceanways Inn just ten minutes from Easbell's center. His hair had thinned, was combed back to hide the bald spot on the back of his head although it did a poor job doing so. He wore a cardigan over a collared shirt that showed the seams of his undershirt. Eddie wondered how he wasn't sweating under all those layers. He himself, after freezing his ass off all afternoon, felt the fabric of his sweater dampening under his leather jacket. 

It was only a couple of minutes after seven so there was no reason for the old man to be suspicious. The easiest thing to assume was that he was passing through, traveling up or down the east coast, and looking for a cheap place to get some rest before hitting the road again, not some sketchy reporter on a stalking mission. Still, the man didn't smile back. 

"Are you alone?" he asked instead and pointed to a 'No pets allowed'-sign before checking his books for an empty room. By the looks of the keys hanging from a board behind him, none of them were occupied. 

Eddie gave him a nod and forced the corners of his mouth into another smile. It was a lie, but the truth was so much more difficult to explain. Not that he would ever try. Venom was the secret he intended to keep. Focused just on exposing those of others. 

"That'll be forty-three dollars," he was told and Eddie's hand stopped on its way to his wallet. 

"Is there WiFi?" he asked, thinking the price was too low for their location even during the off-season. 

"That'll cost extra," the old man said. Eddie wouldn't have been surprised if he forgot to mention it, because he had never used it in his life. 

"Parking?" Eddie added. 

"Costs extra," the old man replied drily. He began to look annoyed. God, Eddie just hoped this place was clean. 

In the end, the room came at sixty-six dollars and fifty cents a night, the price including parking, WiFi, a second pillow and an emergency overnight set containing a miniature soap bar, a small bottle of shampoo, a vanity kit as well as a travel toothbrush and a travel sized tube of toothpaste. Eddie had offered to take that second pillow with him right away in order to spare the old man a walk towards the end of the motel block where Eddie was staying now as per his additional requests of a quiet room if available. So he followed the old guy from the office to a storage room next door where he waited outside until he was handed a freshly cased pillow. 

He nodded his thanks with his goodnight and walked slowly towards his room. Once the old guy was back in his office though, Eddie made a beeline for his car, jogging towards it. He felt anxious leaving his stuff in the car for just one second longer, afraid he had been made, that somehow Barnes had noticed him, a stranger in this small town, right away. That guy was dangerous. 

Eddie grabbed his camera first, then the papers and finally his bag out of the trunk. He double checked that his car was locked before jogging over to his room where he double checked, too, that the door was locked behind him. Then he dumped everything on his bed. 

It was a nice large bed with an old frame but a new mattress right in the center of the room and Eddie sat down on its edge for a second to catch his breath. He wasn't in the best shape and it seemed Venom was still pouting about something so they let him feel it. 

There was something resembling a desk by the window, but it wasn't even wide enough to hold Eddie's laptop, barely fitting the phone that was seated on top. He would have to pay extra for any phone calls of course. But the motel had a printer and a copier in the office that guests could use, charging fifteen cents for every sheet of paper, and a self-service laundry room that Eddie would make desperate use of. They'd been on the road for weeks and the only clean clothes he'd got left was the batch of boxers he'd bought at a supermarket. 

Eyeing the phone, Eddie contemplated calling his editor, a Perry White type of guy who had been in the business for decades, but blew his chance for a promotion early on when he greenlit a story that caught a lot of traction among national press outlets too early because it got debunked just days later and the newspaper was forced to print a retraction alongside an apology. The bitterness ran through his veins to this day and Eddie dreaded any contact with him he couldn't avoid. Despite it being the weekend, Eddie didn't think he had much to go home to so it wouldn't really be a problem. But still, postponing the phone call until Monday seemed like the best idea. Technically, his big break today wasn't even a break on his story, since he still had no other leads on Steve Rogers's whereabouts. His ongoing connection to Barnes was only a rumor, a myth. 

"How about a shower?" he suggested, already standing to check out the bathroom. It looked fine, dated but clean and Eddie shrugged out of his jacket before grabbing his sweater by the collar and sliding it off his skin too, piling everything next to the sink. He watched himself in the mirror, his gaze on the skin over his chest, but nothing happened. He gently tapped on his sternum with two fingers, smiling into the mirror. 

"Hello," he started, tilting his head although he knew he was being unusually silly. "Anybody in there?" he asked, running his fingers through his hair, his naked upper arms and shoulders catching his eye. He still looked muscular enough for him to wonder if earlier Venom had messed with his lungs on purpose. Maybe to punish him for whatever had the symbiote in such a bad mood today. 

"Stop," Venom told him, but to Eddie's delight a couple of tendrils were rising off his chest to wrap around his fingers gently, intertwining, and Eddie brought his hand over his heart. 

"My love," he said softly, meeting his own eyes in the mirror. More of Venom spun out and around his chest and arm, embracing him in return. 

Venom still clung to him in the shower, somewhat unhelpful as Eddie tried to soap up his body and rinse off those past nights he'd spent sleeping in his car. But Eddie didn't even think about telling them to move. He needed this too. The symbiote was always with him, but they hadn't had a lot of chances to connect like this. Feeling Venom against his skin now, Eddie realized how much he had missed it, how touch starved he was. He hadn't been with another person since Anne, six months before the snap. 

Half a year of alien whirlwind romance ensued. They had spent most of their days holed up in Eddie's old apartment doing all sorts of unspeakable things that wouldn't even count as simply kinky anymore. And then the snap. And nothing had been quite the same ever since. They'd lost five years in just one second and Eddie had struggled to readjust. Refused to get help too, because he liked to pretend he didn't need it. 

The towels were softer than expected and Eddie dried their joined bodies off gently, thinking maybe Venom would enjoy the fluffy warm touch too. 

He tore open the package of boxers and put one on, too lazy to do any of his laundry tonight. There would still be some time in the morning. 

With Venom still draped all over his chest and back, he first plugged in his phone to charge, its battery had run out days ago. He rarely had a sufficient enough signal to maintain a call and aside from his editor there was no one to phone or text anyway. Venom was the only relationship he was consistently invested in and they were always with him in person. 

Afterward, he sorted through his clothes, discovering a fresh pair of balled up socks he couldn't remember packing or even owning as well as a forgotten peanut butter bar at the bottom of his bag. 

"Look what I found," he proclaimed, already unwrapping the thing. 

For the first time in days, Venom showed their face in all its glory, a bigger and more agile version of the miniature head from the diner, appearing somewhere from behind Eddie's shoulder. 

Eddie held out the bar for them, Venom's tongue brushing over the skin of his palm as they took it. He shivered at the contact, remembering a time when he was used to the sensation to a shameful degree. 

"Can we get more?" Venom asked, pretending to be oblivious to Eddie's reaction. 

"Tomorrow," Eddie promised, clearing his throat before clearing his bed of papers and clothes. "Tomorrow I'm taking care of everything." 

Halting in his rummaging for a second, with another blurred picture of Barnes in his hand, he ended up staring once more. Something about that guy was captivating, something in his eyes, his gaze, uncertainty or maybe insecurity. Something Eddie hadn't seen all too often in a man accused of so many horrible crimes. 

A hiss of Venom's tongue startled him and he put the picture back with the others, shuffling the papers then squeezing them into the folder. 

"Thought you were hiding again," Eddie said softly. He felt guilty for his distracted mind. 

"We're bored," Venom announced, resting their head on Eddie's shoulder. 

"How about we watch some TV?" Eddie suggested clearing the rest of the bed as he put his camera on the nightstand. He resisted the temptation to pull up the picture again he'd taken tonight in the diner. 

Venom just sighed. 

As Eddie spread his body out on top of the covers of the bed, Venom moved his head all the way to the window, putting an impossible distance between them and leaving Eddie's chest behind, cold and abandoned, waiting and watching instead for every lone car passing by on the street outside. 

"Come here," Eddie prompted, he didn't like having Venom this close to the window. He hadn't cared in the diner, but some sense had returned to him since and he didn't need anyone spotting a nightmarish monster inside his room. "Please," he added, once more annoyed with his tone. "I want to hold you," he admitted pitifully. 

Venom turned their head, considering the offer. Eddie smiled at them, saw in the symbiote nothing less than his better half. Though he was aware Venom could kill him instantly, he wasn't afraid. The only thing he felt was love. They were one, but they were a team too. They belonged together as one creature but as two souls as well. 

"Come here," Eddie said again, this time a mere whisper. 

As if being reeled in, Venom closed the distance between them slowly until they finally rested their head on Eddie's chest to where Eddie's hands came up instantly. He ran them over every part the symbiote chose to keep outside their body, his fingers gliding over smooth texture. 

Eddie closed his eyes, focusing on the touch of his fingers and the subtle comforting weight on his chest. He relaxed instantly, every part of his body exhaling in relief, the effect so intense he guessed it was the result of some extra tension leaving Venom as well. 

After a couple of minutes of gentle strokes, the surface of Venom's body changed beneath Eddie's hands and his fingers dipped deeper, sinking into his symbiote. Eddie's heart melted into the touch all the same. 

His breaths evened out easily now and he was able to put the story aside, focusing just on the present, sharing all of it willingly, body and mind alike, with Venom. He could feel their thoughts flowing, mixing mingling, surrendering even the idea of privacy for a moment. 

With the sound of the TV lulling him in and Venom swirling all through him, that was how Eddie fell into a deep sleep.

Halfway through the night or maybe just five minutes later, --time lost to any perception--, he registered the dying of the voices from the screen, the motel room succumbing to silence and darkness and Eddie to his dreams. 

He woke up still on top of the covers, blinking through the finest threads of black. Venom was slung all around his body, keeping him warm and perfectly comfortable. 

It had been a while since he'd slept this well, wishing he could stay like this all morning and the rest of the day. He rolled his shoulders and stretched his toes. His fingers reached for more of Venom but slid right through the gentle layer of symbiote. Bit by bit and to Eddie's disappointment, Venom retreated back into his body. He had wanted to hold them again, touch someone else's body instead of just his own over and over again. 

Refusing to get up, he pulled the edge of the sheet off the side of the bed and rolled himself into it, closing his eyes once more. 

"It's morning, Eddie," Venom informed him. So very helpful. Eddie tried to shake his head, shake off the voice, forgetting it was inside anyway. "Are we getting breakfast?" they asked, hungry of course. Always hungry these days. "And milkshakes?" 

"Mmh," Eddie managed to get out. He wasn't feeling hungry at all. Never hungry these days. Never noticing until he sat in front of a plate. Always thinking about food though, eating without much appetite. He had a symbiote to care for after all. Today wasn't any different. "Chocolate or vanilla?" Eddie asked, his words muffled by the sheets, but Venom would catch them anyway. 

The symbiote made a sound that Eddie had come to recognize as something like humorous irritation. Something Venom had picked up just shortly before the snap. Back then, Eddie had believed it would develop into something else, laughter maybe. The symbiote could smile after all. But it had never quite developed into anything. Not that it had to. Eddie didn't need to forcefully humanize Venom, those were just things he picked up on. The manners that Venom mimicked, copying Eddie's facial expressions or his gestures. It seemed healthy enough to adapt to the human environment although Eddie was no expert on alien biology. He had only become an expert in this particular alien's well-being. 

"Chocolate, Eddie," Venom let him know. 

"Of course," Eddie agreed, rolling back again and detangling himself from the sheets. "That's a good choice," he added, staring up at the ceiling. 

He freshened up quickly, put on his jeans from last night while scooping up all the other clothes and squishing them back into his duffle. He grabbed his jacket and slid it over his bare arms and back, smiling to himself when Venom webbed themself all around his chest, forming a well-fitted sweater. "My favorite," Eddie said, before he shouldered his bag and grabbed his wallet and the camera from the nightstand. He wouldn't risk it getting stolen. 

He stopped by the laundry room first, emptied his duffle bag into one of the machines then got some detergent off the vending machine before setting everything up for a good whirl. 

Then he stepped by the office to pay for another night in advance. It was a leap of faith, but even if he'd discover that Barnes had left town, he could afford to stay one more night before starting the entire process of tracking him down again. 

He got into his car, the air inside stale and cold as he started the engine. He missed his bike. He missed the sense of freedom, of independence that came with the bike. The sense of agency. He was a miserable driver when it came to cars. But a bike was only operatable all year round in California, they weren't useful throughout east coast winters. Plus, a bike drew too much attention. So it wouldn't have been an option anyway, not for this story. He'd left his bike in Dan's garage and borrowed money from Anne to buy a used sedan. 

Traffic was low, as always in these small towns so far up, --no, down the state, so Eddie allowed himself to grip the steering wheel just lightly to keep his fingers from freezing stiff again.

"Where are we going, Eddie?" Venom asked as they noticed the road Eddie had taken. The symbiote was still gracious enough to keep all of Eddie's torso perfectly warm but Eddie could feel the impatience building in the symbiote's voice. 

"Just checking something real quick,” he said, putting his palm flat against his chest for a second in reassurance. "And then we'll get something to eat," he added. "No more delays." 

Although he had been distracted, Eddie still remembered the exact turn at which he'd lost Barnes the night before and he wanted to see where it would have led them. He wanted to see if maybe he could spot the pickup anywhere, maybe find a house or a cabin that belonged with it. 

He followed the empty road for about two miles until it grew narrow and finally ended rather abruptly against a sign that stated that its gravel continuation was placed on private property. Eddie contemplated for a second before putting his car in reverse and backing up until he could turn it around. 

"What are you doing?" Venom asked, clearly thinking Eddie wasn't in a clear state of mind. 

"It's too dangerous," Eddie told them. "We don't have a good cover story yet." He paused for a second, realizing that it wasn't the only problem. "We don't have even half a plan yet," he stated, tempted to curse at himself. Sure, going wherever a story led was the only option for any reporter really, given who he was dealing with not having a backup plan seemed awfully risky and reckless though. "We've got to come up with a plan for this story." 

"We've got to get food," Venom said and Eddie felt his chest tightened which he took as a warning that there were plenty of snack-sized organs just inside his own body. 

"You're right," Eddie said although he contemplated sacrificing a kidney. As long as Venom was with him, he could do without half of his organs for a long while. And living a life without the symbiote didn't seem that appealing anyway. "Let's get moving," he decided though. 

This time, he parked directly in front of the diner, not in the mood for even a quick walk. Maybe it wasn't the smartest idea to return there, but he didn't want to disappoint his symbiote and he took the chance that Sandy would likely not be working another shift this soon. And if she did, maybe he would get a chance to ask her about the guy with the baseball cap from last night without revealing too much. 

It was a Sunday morning and almost every table at the diner was filled with people coming in for breakfast or an early brunch. Scanning the room, Eddie made the decision to take a seat at the counter like Barnes had yesterday while waiting for his order. This gave Eddie an idea, although he didn't know if his, as of late, chronically bored symbiote would appreciate it. 

"Hi," a tall wiry bus boy said, a tray of dirty dishes under one arm. The name tag on his shirt read Joseph, but it was at least a size too big, so Eddie didn't know whether today that info was reliable either.

When Eddie gave him a nod, Joseph's face lit up in a smile and he put the tray down behind the counter. 

"What can I get you?" he asked, tilting his hips so he could fumble a pad and paper out his pocket. 

Eddie watched him for a second, unsure if Joseph wasn't supposed to get those dishes to the kitchen first. But then he realized, he didn't care. 

"Can I get the Sunday's special, two double chocolate cream cheese muffins, a coffee and one of those chocolate milkshakes to go?" Eddie asked, listening for a reaction from within. Or for his sweater to strangle him. 

Joseph's face fell for a second but he managed to recover his smile almost instantly. It didn't reach his eyes though. His reaction made Eddie curious. He was a reporter after all. 

"Hangover," he remarked and put on an embarrassed face, just to see what would happen. 

"Oh, yeah, don't worry," Joseph said quickly. "Sorry to hear that," he told Eddie, but he didn't look sorry. He looked relieved. "I'll get that order to the kitchen right away." He smiled at Eddie, a broad happy carefree teenage smile, one that Eddie remembered from his own youth but forgot how to reenact.

"Why did you just lie, Eddie?" Venom asked once Joseph was out of sight. "We're not hungover." 

"Because I just ordered for two," Eddie said casually. 

That seemed to make Venom think as they didn't reply right away. To Eddie they were one and two at once, to Venom they were just one. 

Just a minute later, Joseph returned with a large paper cup of coffee and set it down in front of Eddie. "While you wait," he said, still sounding a little too happy to serve him. Nothing made Eddie feel worse than being a small town highschool-maybe-college boy's crush of the day and taking some validation and flattery from it, yet here he was. Liking the fact that the circumstances of his new life hadn't rubbed off on his looks yet. "That's a cool camera," Joseph noted and Eddie subtly put a protective hand over his property. "Are you a photographer?" 

Eddie took another good look at the boy in front of him, trying to figure out if for some reason he could end up posing a threat. 

"I'm Joey, by the way," Joseph, Joey, told him, sensing that he overstepped but trying to play it cool. "We get a lot of wildlife photographers here. They're basically the only ones passing through as soon as the summer is over. So I've seen many of those," he added with another nod to the camera. 

Eddie contemplated his options. Contemplating the opportunity. 

"I am," he said then, flashing Joey a confident smile. "Taking wildlife pictures for an article project," he lied. "It's a series. New England's beauty and all that." It was as good a cover story as any. It would allow him to wander around town and the surrounding areas, maybe even accidentally crossing over onto private property in search of some rare bird or some shit. 

"Cool," Joey said and nodded as if he'd heard about those kinds of articles a million times before. And he probably had. His cheeks were flushed. "I'll check on your order," he said to give himself a reason to hide out for a second. 

Eddie took a good sip of his coffee and burned his tongue. Venom didn't say anything, but Eddie knew they thought it was well deserved. They were probably right. 

His orders came in three still warm paper bags and one plastic cup topped with one of those dome lids to protect the whipped cream. "You good?" Joey asked as he watched Eddie tuck his camera under his arm before he reached for the three bags with one hand and then balanced his coffee with the milkshake in another. 

"Not my first hangover," Eddie told him with a wink. He could already feel some tendrils adding grip strength and stability to his fingers. He was going to do just fine. 

"Okay," Joey said, pointedly holding out a straw for the milkshake. Eddie knew Venom wouldn't need it, would just use their tongue again, but instead of saying so he turned slightly to the side, offering up the pocket of his jacket. 

Joey blushed again, but slipped the straw in nonetheless. 

"Thanks," Eddie said, nodding over to the counter where he'd left some money. Joey scooped it up, most likely noticing that the tip was on the smaller side, but Eddie didn't want him to get the wrong idea. He wasn't that kind of screwed-up. 

Once outside the door, Eddie left the bags to Venom as he held onto his camera instead and used two fingers to fish his keys out of his jeans. 

"Let's eat that in bed, yeah?" he offered, knowing there was very little he could do if Venom decided that now would be a better time to chomp it all down. 

He unlocked his car and got in, his hand with the cups hovering over the passenger seat. "Can you hold them there?" he asked, letting go even before he got an answer. 

"We can, Eddie," Venom told him nonetheless. 

"That smells good, doesn't it?" Eddie asked, adding his voice to the things filling up the interior of the car. When he glanced to the side he saw that Venom had come out and was eyeing up the milkshake with a wet tongue between his teeth. 

"Very," they said to Eddie who risked another glance over before focusing back on the street. The symbiote looked happy again. 

"I think this is going to be a good day," Eddie announced, making a mental note for later to do some research on his cover story. It didn't matter now if he was staying at the same motel for some time longer or whether he would run into the same people twice. Even if someone would recognize him from before the snap, he could simply tell them the truth, that he was trying to get a foot back into journalism. Only adding that he got stuck with wildlife tourism pieces. 

On their way back to the room, Eddie checked on his laundry, but seeing as it would still be running for half an hour longer, he prioritized breakfast. It was a good call because even before he'd unlocked the door, Venom's pink tongue appeared from inside his sleeve on its way to secure a first taste of the milkshake. 

Once inside, his sweater disappeared a little too fast, the rush of cold air through his open jacket causing Eddie to lose his breath for a second. 

"Jesus, you must be starving," he remarked, watching Venom dig through the paper bags for more hash browns and possibly the muffins. 

"We," Venom corrected, even stopping his raid to bring his head around and scold Eddie with a look. 

Looking down at his coffee guiltily, Eddie shrugged. "Yes, we," he relented, but it didn't cost him much effort. "Leave me something then," he said in an attempt to lighten the mood. 

He set the cup aside to rid himself of his jacket, feeling stupid and naked once he stood shirtless in the room. 

"Hey, V," he said, the one letter so unfamiliar on his lips. He'd mostly used it before to address the symbiote but he didn't think he'd ever said it out loud since they came back from the dust. "Help me out again, love. Okay?" he tried instead. "Just for today." He still needed to get his shirts from the washer into the dryer. "I miss you," he added, although he wasn't sure if it made sense to either of them. Venom was with him non-stop. 

While Venom was still busy sorting through the food, Eddie sat down on the bed and booted up his computer, thinking he could start doing some research now, come up with a plan and then head out once it was getting dark again to check a couple of places in town for the pickup. 

Eventually, Venom began wrapping themself back around Eddie's upper body, slowly though this time, almost artfully, and Eddie paused to watch those black threads twist like saltwater taffy as they made their way over his skin. 

Eddie was tempted to close his laptop again and take a nap instead, sleep like this although he wasn't tired, with Venom's touch all around him. He reached for his camera to stay focused, pulled it onto the bed. He still needed to save the pictures and then bury them under a couple of useless files and maybe password-protect the folder. Barnes was dangerous, a criminal, and technically Eddie was obligated to inform the authorities. Technically. 

Last night Barnes had seemed almost friendly with Sandy the waitress and Eddie wondered whether he was on good terms with all of the locals. Wondered whether this entire town was complicit in keeping his identity and his whereabouts hidden. 

When Eddie opened the camera roll, the screen went black and for a second he thought the battery had died or that he had accidentally hit the power button again. But the display was still on, general stats and meta data available. He used the pad of his thumb to wade through the pictures in panic, pulling up the next and the one after that, more and more, all of them empty photos, until, about a dozen clicks later, the one he was looking for finally showed up on the small screen. 

For a moment, Eddie simply let all of the relief settle before he slowly brought his gaze back up, narrowing his eyes on the symbiote at the foot of the bed with its tongue curling at the bottom of the empty milkshake cup. He was about to say something when he held himself back and filed that conversation for a later day instead. 

He was tired of treating Venom like they needed constant supervision and yet the symbiote's behavior didn't really warrant a different approach. If he had any other choice, he would simply refuse to learn what Venom had been up to when he'd fallen asleep last night, but he couldn't risk his investigation falling apart over this. And so he began wondering what had kept Venom up, what kept them from staying as close to Eddie as possible, all night long, like they used to. Messing with his things instead. 

Guilt washed up at last as he thought about it, wondering if it was the fact that the symbiote wasn't well, wasn't well fed, wasn't getting neither enough stimulation nor nutrition. It didn't help that Venom was most likely already aware of everything Eddie had been feeling, the anger, the disappointment, worry and regret. 

Instead of saying anything though, he gave his camera and the laptop another glance before putting both down next to him on the mattress then scooted over to the end of the bed. He reached into one of the paper bags and grabbed the first thing he could reach. He really was starving. 


	3. Chapter 3

The dryer swallowed the first round of quarters without stirring and even the subtle encouragement of Eddie's fist didn't help. Instead of fighting with the machine, he opened it back and loaded his clothes from this one into the next. He was feeling better than before, his stomach filled and his symbiote fed. Venom was still webbed tightly around his chest but they had their head close to Eddie's neck, observing the developments. 

"Can we stay and watch?" they asked, and Eddie bit his lip to keep from sighing. 

"No, love," he said with tender understanding. "I've got work to do." 

Venom thought about it for a second, before they put their chin on Eddie's shoulder in disappointment. 

"You can watch TV in the room," he offered, feeling the kind of guilt a lot of parents would probably relate to. "Or help me come up with a plan." This time the dryer lit up in stand-by as soon as Eddie put his money in and began rumbling once he'd chosen the program. "You know this story is important to me," Eddie said. A gentle reminder. "To us." 

"The story and the pictures," Venom said, but there was little understanding in the symbiote's voice. 

"Yeah, those are part of the story," Eddie explained. He waited for another question, another reply, but Venom kept his thoughts to themself. 

For the next two hours, Eddie managed to draft a decent cover story that should be convincing enough for any passerby, yet he doubted it was good enough to hold up against another practiced liar. Or anyone being suspicious to a paranoid degree. Someone on the run. 

He'd also saved the picture taken, compared it not only to the blurry ones that had been sent to him by his source but the one that had been distributed years ago through television news all around the world as well as the ones available on the Smithsonian's website. He had no doubt left that it was James Buchanan Barnes who had sat in the diner with him just eighteen hours ago. 

Noticing just how stiff his neck and back had gotten from working propped up against the old headboard, he closed his laptop for a second to stretch his arms out above his head. Once the screen was out of the way, he saw that Venom was curled up on the covers beside his knee, looking small and lost, a single thick thread connecting the odd shape on the mattress to Eddie's torso, to where the rest of their body still served as a make-shift shirt, like a grotesque umbilical cord. They were asleep, or whatever state their body had come up with for a substitute. 

Eddie couldn't help the fond smile taking hold of his face, and he wouldn't have wanted to fight it anyway. He put the computer down at the floor beside the bed and arranged his body around the symbiote's head, kissing it carefully just once, before pulling one of the pillows down to rest his own on. He watched Venom in silence until his eyelids started to feel heavy and he drifted off too.

When his eyes opened again, the sun was low and painted the room a dark orange glow. Eddie was shirtless, his dick was half-hard and he could faintly feel how his symbiote was half-hungry again. The spot in front of him on the bed was empty and he rolled over onto his back. In the corner of his eye he could see something black dancing in the air, Venom, he thought, but the shape was bulkier and part of it reflected the light coming through the window. 

He shrieked, embarrassingly high and scrambled up so uncoordinated that he fell face first off the bed. His body hit the floor in a heavy thump, his chin taking a painful blow from the edge of his laptop that split the skin. 

"Ow," Eddie got out, feeling dizzy and disoriented for a second, his jaw aching uncomfortably. He moved it around a little, bringing his fingers up to gently press against its joint by his ear and then down his cheek. His teeth didn't feel like they fit on top of each other anymore, something dislodged by just the split of an inch. The side of his palm came up wet with blood and when Eddie looked at it, he realized his hand was trembling. 

He had been leaning a little bit towards the careless side when it came to his body, ever since he'd lost his job with the network, but he hadn't suffered any consequences bigger than a paper cut or a purple bruise on his shin since Venom. He hadn't missed it, the physical hurt, but he hadn't been reminded much of it either. Now he felt it everywhere, every bone shaken from the shock of the impact. His stomach revolting from the fall, from hunger, from disgust. His dick fully hard, but painfully squashed. 

Refusing to acknowledge any of it, Eddie rolled off his laptop and over onto his back once again. From there he saw his camera sitting neatly on the floor, just an arm's length from him. The symbiote was nowhere to be seen. He sighed and let his head rest against the floor, brushed his fingers along his jaw again, thinking that taking a beating from the winter soldier wouldn't have hurt significantly more. Probably. 

A thin trail of blood ran down the side of his neck in slow motion, itching and irritating, before Eddie wiped it off with the back of his hand. 

"I'm so fucking angry right now," he stated calmly although what he actually wanted was to throw his computer across the room, strangle every thread of Venom he could reach, then yank out more to put his hands on before screaming from the top of his lungs or crying, open-mouthed and read-faced, like he hadn't done since he was eight years old. "That shit is so fucking expensive and you were there when we bought it," Eddie went on instead. He knew that Venom was listening although all of them was hidden deep within Eddie's body. "You couldn't have forgotten," he added for good measure, because they had to cut spendings for a whole month and Venom had complained every single day about the lack of food they liked best. "And I told you not to touch it." His words were barely audible through his gritted teeth that put extra strain on his sore jaw. 

Venom didn't reply nor did they acknowledge in any other way a single word of the thing's Eddie had just said. Blood was still welling from the cut on his chin. Eddie opened his eyes, listening and feeling intently. For a second he feared that his body and mind were playing tricks on him, that Venom had left him, discarded him for a new host, but that his brain was too slow to register it. Or that he was stuck in denial, that he couldn't face the trauma of separation. 

But Venom was still there. 

"So now you're giving me the silent treatment?" Eddie asked annoyed. "Very mature," he went on without pause talking himself into a fit. "God!" he yelled, pushed himself up in anger and frustration. 

More parts of his body began to hurt, his knees and hips and his lower back, but he forced himself on his feet despite it. 

"You're not a child and I'm not your babysitter," he reminded the symbiote. "You're not a pet that doesn't understand what it's been told," he added, maybe reminding himself too. "How about you start behaving like a goddamn grown-up person," he suggested although he knew that he was being unfair. 

He himself had played his part in keeping Venom from taking up more agency. Too risky, too dangerous, simply impossible in a world full of humans. He had named every excuse in the book. He was complicit, he was just as responsible. 

Frustrated, he grabbed his shoes and slid them on his feet, stomping the heels both times just to be an asshole. Then he grabbed his jacket, tired of not having his clothes around, but when he tried to zip it up, it was tighter than he remembered. 

"Are you fucking with me now?" he asked, because he was definitely still in denial about maybe being out of shape, about maybe putting on a couple of extra pounds by sitting in his car and sharing junk food with his alien symbiote whether he was hungry or not. After all, they were always starving, weren't they? 

Without waiting for a reply, without wanting a reply, he yanked the door open and stepped out, pulling it back close unnecessarily hard. He wrapped his hands around himself as he hurried along the motel block to the laundry room, rubbed his hands all over his upper arms to keep warm. 

When he got to the dryer, still angry, yanking the handle, the door was jammed and all the tension in his body boiled over and blew up in a violent kick he delivered to the door. 

"Goddammit," he yelled, sinking down to the floor then, his back against the dryer. He closed his eyes and tried to compose himself, focused on his breathing. 

He went to wipe more blood off his chin, but his hand came back damp with just sweat. He stared at it for a beat before rubbing his palm over his face and then pushing his fingers through his hair. 

"Thanks," he said, noticing that the pain in the other parts of his body was gone as well. He took another deep breath and let his head roll back. "I'm sorry," he apologized. "For what I said, I didn't mean it." 

He shouldn't have lashed out like that, there had been no reason to blame Venom for his own missteps, his own headless actions. 

If Venom wasn't going to be in the mood to interact with him for a while longer, it would be no surprise. This time Eddie was right there with them, thinking he deserved it. 

Partly resigned, Eddie gathered his ass off the floor and stood again when he heard a click behind him and saw the door of the dryer swing open gently prompted by the intricate touch of a delicate tendril. 

Eddie smiled, some phantom pain lingering in the joints of his jaw. Since he'd forgotten to take his bag from his car to the room this morning, he gathered up all his clothes in his arms, looking over his shoulder every ten steps or so to make sure he hadn't lost any of the socks. 

Although still awfully quiet, Venom opened the door for him and he dumped the tangled pile onto the bed. It had sat in the dryer for hours, so all of the clothes had enough time to cool and crumple, but Eddie didn't care. He dug out a thin sweatshirt, tossed his jacket onto the chair at the unuseable desk and put the fresh sweater on. 

"You know," he started gently. "We haven't even had a snack since this morning." He let that hang in the air of their room for a second. Taking a look around, his eyes fell on his laptop and he picked it up to check for damage. The plastic casing at one of the edges was split and two smaller pieces had been broken off in its collision with his chin. Other than that it looked okay. He turned it on for a second, just to make sure that the screen hadn't taken a hit. It was fine. 

Afterwards, he picked up the camera off the floor too, turning it on as well for his own peace of mind. He had saved the pictures he needed, but he still checked, noticing that the camera roll was filled with more pictures, blurry images of the room this time, Eddie's sleeping body in one, distorted by movement probably. 

"Did you try to take pictures?" Eddie asked, his eyes still on the screen. Trying to figure out for what reason they had even been fighting. Trying to understand before getting mad. "What did you want to photograph?" he added after Venom remained quiet. "I'm not angry anymore," he assured them, setting the camera aside in his hope that Venom would show their face. Then he picked the camera back up, turning it on. "Come on, I want to show you how," he said, finally taking his own advice of behaving like an adult and treating Venom the same way. 

Venom's head appeared from behind his shoulder, slowly and cautiously, but a rush of relief, forgiveness and joy ran through Eddie anyway. The entire ordeal of how they ended up here forgotten. 

For the next twenty minutes, Eddie walked Venom through the most important settings and how to adjust to distances, lighting and angles. He showed them how to hold the camera steady and securely for the best shots and how to click through the thumbnails of the camera roll, how to edit and delete pictures. He trusted Venom with his life, so it was time to trust them with his work too. 

"Eddie?" Venom began then, pausing for a second. 

"Yeah," Eddie said, bringing his focus onto his symbiote. 

"The man in the pictures," Venom started again, hiding behind Eddie's ear in his blind spot. "Do you like looking at him?" 

The question caught Eddie off guard and for a long moment he had no answer. "It's kind of my job to look at the pictures," he said diplomatically. 

"But do you like it?" Venom asked again, Eddie's deflective answer not good enough. 

They were sharing a body, so it wasn't often that Venom asked about Eddie's emotions. And when they did, it was because Eddie's feelings were confusing, contradictory or downright scary. 

"I-," Eddie tried, turned his head as far as it would go to try and see if he could figure out what this was about with a glance at his symbiote. "I've never given it any thought," he said then, surprised that he could go with the truth and didn't have to lie. 

Venom was still strategically hiding from Eddie's eyes as he contemplated the answer. 

"There were pictures in our old apartment," they said eventually. 

"Not of him," Eddie jumped in, wondering why he had to insist on it immediately. "Of other people," he added, thinking about all those pictures of Anne that he'd banished into a drawer at first and that were now packed into boxes with his other stuff, taking up too much space in Dan's garage along with his bike. "Or other people and us together."

"Not us," Venom argued. "Just you." 

Eddie opened his mouth to object, but then realized that Venom was right. He couldn't remember having been in a single picture since they'd begun sharing a body, much less taken a picture with actual evidence of the symbiote. Too dangerous, too risky, simply impossible. Every excuse in the book. 

His eyes dropped to the camera in his hands, but it wasn't the one he wanted to use. Not for pictures this personal. He got up and retrieved his phone from the nightstand, switched it on and waited for it to boot. Venom was watching, Eddie could feel their eyes on him. 

"How about we take some selfies?" Eddie asked, looking over his wrong shoulder at first as Venom had switched sides. "It really is long overdue," he said more to himself, thinking that if they hadn't returned after the snap, no image of Venom would have been around for Anne and Dan to remember them by. It didn't seem right. 

He opened the camera app and held his phone up so Venom could see their image displayed. On the screen, Eddie could see their eyes light up as they recognized themself. Obviously, the symbiote had passed the mirror test thousands of times when it came down to their reflection, but Venom's momentary delight still brought traces of contentment to Eddie's face and he used the opportunity to snap the first picture. 

"Now we have a picture of us," Eddie said, surprised at how happy that fact made him too. "Give me another smile," he told Venom and when he saw the symbiote flash more razor sharp teeth Eddie turned and kissed the corner of their mouth as he pressed the shutter button. 

He kissed Venom for a second and third time, before looking back on his phone and checking how the photo had come out. 

"If that ain't one for the frames," he commented, mildly impressed with himself. He glanced back over to Venom to see why they were so quiet. 

The symbiote was still mesmerized by the phone and its front camera. They watched in what Eddie could only guess was a little bit of awe as he tapped on the display just four or five times to set the first picture as his lock screen and the second one as his home screen. When he was done he showed Venom the result. 

"Looks good, doesn't it?" he asked. He was aware of the risk, of the danger, but he didn't care anymore. He thought the only way his phone was going to leave his hands was if they were both dead anyway. 

"We like it, Eddie," Venom said and Eddie nodded in full-fledged agreement. 

"How about some food now?" he suggested, vaguely aware of how late it had gotten. "We could take a look around town? See what we find? Maybe get some info off the locals on where that road leads to?" 

"By asking?" Venom wondered. 

"Yep," Eddie confirmed. "By asking." 

"Asking nicely?" the symbiote added, a clear disdain in their voice. 

"Nicely, yes," Eddie said. He hated to have to disappoint them, but he was smiling. "We'll consider intimidation as a last resort, okay?"

Venom nodded absently as they gazed back onto the phone for a long moment. Then they smudged their head against Eddie's cheek, teeth and all, in a messy little kiss and Eddie laughed for the first time in over a week. 

This time, it was Eddie's turn to choose and so they ended up in a nice pizza place where Eddie had sat down at the far end of the bar so he could maybe get a chance to strike up a conversation with the bartender. 

He ordered a large over-topped special with double cheese and garlic bread on the side. Despite Venom's protests, he ordered a beer, thinking one couldn't do much harm and make him seem more laid back. 

The guy behind the bar was the epitome of tall, dark and handsome, and Eddie wished he would have the effect on him that he had on Joey from the diner. But the place was relatively busy and he never seemed to have much time to linger around their spot. Not that Eddie really wanted to flirt or make something happen. This town of strangers had simply gotten him in the mood for some human validation. 

"You're needy, Eddie," Venom told him, sounding amused about that. 

"I know," Eddie agreed. There was irony in Venom being the one to call him out like that, but then again there was no law in the universe that prohibited both parties of the same relationship from being emotionally insecure. 

It was no big deal. 

For a while, Eddie sat there in silence with his beer and his symbiote and all of his efforts went into suppressing those recurring thoughts of what he was going to do after this. After this story or the next. In the future. With his life. 

"So you're the new guy," a voice addressed him from the side. Eddie turned his head slowly. He didn't like being put on the spot like that. It was the voice of a woman, his age or maybe a couple of years older, with short blonde hair, wearing a black turtleneck that drew attention to her already unusually long neck. 

With ease, she hopped onto the stool next to his, draping her forearms across the bar. She drummed her fingers on the countertop until the beautiful disinterested man behind the corner looked over, then she lifted just a finger and he nodded, began preparing a drink for her. 

"Who snitched on me?" Eddie asked, leaning back in a relaxed manner and with a smirk on his face. It wasn't genuine, but he wanted to give the impression that he liked being approached. He could almost make himself believe it. It was a good opportunity to test his cover story, an opportunity to ask the questions he needed answers to. An opportunity to receive some validation as well. Only that he got the sense the woman next to him already knew more than he was comfortable with. 

"It's a small town," she said by way of explaining. 

"Really?" Eddie asked sarcastically. "I hadn't noticed." 

The woman laughed although it didn't seem genuine either. The bartender came over with her drink, this time taking a moment to spare Eddie a first real look. He didn't say anything though and walked away just a second later. Eddie felt like he'd just received an unfair judgement. 

"My step dad owns the Inn," the woman let him know finally. "And you're the only guest."

"Ah," Eddie said. The information allowed him to lower his defenses a little. "It's one of the nicer motels I've stayed in," he told her. It was clean and it was better than sleeping in his car and that was all that mattered to Eddie these days. 

She snorted then took a sip of her drink. Eddie didn't know what to do with it. The feeling returned that she knew something he didn't. That she knew something he didn't that made her not like him very much. 

Biting his tongue for a second, he contemplated if what he had to gain from this conversation was worth the hassle. In the end, he decided it wasn't and turned back to his beer. As if on cue, his pizza made his way from the kitchen across the small restaurant and he nodded to himself when Venom gave voice to his excitement over it in his head. 

"It's in red numbers," the woman continued despite Eddie's attempt to shut down their chitchat. 

"I've paid upfront," Eddie remarked although he hated that he had taken the bait and got defensive. He took a generous bite off the pizza to shut himself up. Venom was right there on his tongue, but no one noticed the extra set of teeth behind Eddie's own, Venom's head halfway submerged into the roof of his mouth. 

"For a room?" she asked, a tight anger in her voice. "Or all twelve of them?" 

Her tone annoyed Eddie, but this wasn't the city where a certain behavior was acceptable, if not encouraged, and so he refrained from assertively brushing her off. He wiped his hands with the napkin to give himself time to think and swallowed down what little Venom left for him of every bite. 

"You looking for a buyer?" he asked, hoping the question would come off as a subtle threat. 

She watched her drink for a second, before she turned her body towards him. "We were going to shut the place down for the winter," she told Eddie. "That was the plan until you came along. Now he's feeling obligated to keep it open." 

"So you want me to leave then?" Eddie clarified. He leaned back again, shaking his head slowly. "These small towns really are as welcoming as they say." 

"Look," she said, "There's another lodge just a couple of miles down the coastline." She folded her hands in her lap, crossed her legs. Eddie failed to keep his eyes on her face,  
glanced down to take notice of the slender knees, the thick boots and the faux leather leggings between. They made him think of Venom, of how little of them he had been allowed to touch lately. "You can tell them I sent you and they'll give you a good price," she interrupted Eddie's wandering attention. 

"I don't even know who you are," he reminded her, shaking his head again and going back to his food. He wasn't going to leave town just because some random person told him to. 

"Just tell them McFarlane's daughter sent you," she said, reaching for her drink, but she remained annoyingly persistent positioned to face him. 

"Stepdaughter," he corrected without looking at her. His second night in town certainly wasn't going the way he had intended. He was already making enemies as if he couldn't help himself. 

Her expression hadn't changed when Eddie glanced at her for a second, but he could see her anger nonetheless. The traces of his offense. He thought she was going to throw her drink in his face when she lifted her glass, but instead she just put it back on the counter and stood up wordlessly to walk away. 

She had already taken two steps, when she turned back again. "Don't get too comfortable here, Brock," she told him. 

If she'd expected him to flinch at the mention of his last name, he disappointed her. People in all places tended to know who he was. And if she didn't recognize him from his TV days, she probably had access to the books at her stepfather's motel. He made a mental note to consider that she'd come by there and probably knew about his car and its license number too. He might have to start moving around town by foot more to keep under the radar. 

But other than that, Eddie wasn't easily intimidated. He could turn into a seven foot six, five hundred pounds monster within the blink of an eye. If the people of Easbell didn't want him around, they weren't ill-advised. 

He saluted her with two fingers over a bored expression, chewing on more of his pizza. He was already too comfortable. 

Still with his mouth full, he watched her walk off, washed down the crust with his beer while Venom feasted on the toppings. When he turned his head back, bartender-guy was already on his way over, either to get the empty glass or to throw Eddie out. 

Curious more than afraid, Eddie held his breath as he waited for what was going to happen. He tightened his fingers around his beer, thinking that if that guy would drag his ass out on the streets he would just take it with him. 

But even before he stood fully in front of him, Eddie thought he saw him change his earlier opinion on his lonely guest at the bar. He didn't smile, but his eyes softened and Eddie had to look away for a second. 

"Don't worry," handsome-bartender- guy said, drawing Eddie's eyes back up. "She can be pretty scary but so far she hasn't killed anybody." 

"That you know of," Eddie finished immediately out of reflex, feeling a little proud when the guy smiled at his addition. 

"That I know of," he repeated, taking her glass off the counter. He didn't walk away immediately so Eddie decided to give this a shot. 

"I'm Eddie," he said, realizing that it was the first time he had introduced himself to anybody since he'd left San Francisco. 

"Aaron," the handsome bartender said and held out his hand. He was missing a finger, but that didn't make his hand any less attractive. Eddie shook it, feeling self-conscious about how his own fingers looked awfully short and thick in the broad palm of the guy opposite him. Aaron. 

They held each other's gaze for a second before breaking apart and Eddie had to clear his throat to retrieve his focus. 

"Is it true what she said?" he asked, keeping his fingers busy with his beer. "Was the motel about to close?" 

Aaron shook his head as he began wiping the counter where McFarlane's step daughter had sat. "Frankie wouldn't have let that happen," he said, without looking at Eddie who chose to focus on his pizza in return. "He's got a soft spot for people coming up here during the winter. Says they need this place more than all those summer tourists." 

Eddie lifted his head at that, paying more attention now as he watched Aaron closely. The old man hadn't seemed all that happy about having Eddie for a guest, but first impressions had a failure rate too. 

"He doesn't like showing that soft spot though, does he?" Eddie asked and when Aaron laughed in a gentle manner, he thought he might have a chance to get some answers after all. And some good old human validation. 

"No, I guess not," Aaron agreed. He pointed at Eddie's finished drink. "Another?" 

Eddie shook his head, knowing Venom would not only let him deal with any hangover alone but worsen his headache if they felt like it. And that was definitely a best case scenario. Partially digesting his liver just to get back at him came to mind as a worse option. 

"You got virgin coladas or something?" he asked instead, because he wanted Aaron to stay around as well as keep him partially distracted. 

Aaron eyed him up curiously, a question at the tip of his tongue but then seemed to decide it wasn't worth asking. "Dealer's choice?" he wondered instead. 

Eddie offered up his hands, smiling. "I'm all yours," he announced without thinking. 

"You got it," Aaron said, turning around just to miss Eddie flinching and bending over in a stabbing agony, his forehead knocking against the counter as his guts were squeezed tight and twisted into a taut knot. 

With his teeth clenched and tears welling in the corner of his eyes, he gritted out an apology. "I didn't mean it," he added in a breathy, pain-stricken whisper though Venom was close enough to his heart and his thoughts to be aware of it already. 

The cramping, violent pain subsided within the next second, but left a ghosting, sour soreness as a reminder. Eddie sat back. He hoped Venom had picked his moment with consideration, but he quickly checked his surroundings just to make sure. No one paid attention to him. 

Eddie kept his eyes on the room as he dragged his hand up his thigh, pulling on the inseam of his jeans. He was half-hard again, but it wasn't because of Aaron, and his dick was lodged so uncomfortably against his zipper he was more strung out about it than embarrassed. He wasn't as naive as to believe Venom would take care of it, now or any other time soon. 

He was still feeling the heat of the altercation when Aaron returned with a cocktail glass in his large and tender hand. Eddie wiped off his eyes before he straightened his back and smiled at him. 

The drink was a creamy lemony yellow with foam on top, ice all the way down to the bottom where a purplish red syrup was pooled. Aaron had put a slice of grapefruit, next to a slightly smaller slice of lemon up on the brim of the glass and had pierced both pieces of fruits with one of those tiny umbrellas. For a moment, all of this seemed sustainable. Drinking, flirting, making a living. 

"What's up?" Aaron asked, watching Eddie stare at the drink. "There's no booze in there," he reminded him. "If you like juice boxes, you're gonna like this." 

"You sure I don't need to worry about being kicked out early?" Eddie wondered without looking up. It wasn't what bothered him, but it would put their conversation back on track. 

"You'll be fine," Aaron said, nudging the drink just an inch closer into Eddie's space. "Frankie would put you into his guest bedroom at home before he'd send you back on the road." 

"Are you sure you know him that well?" Eddie asked, stirring the ice with his straw. Where the two liquids mixed the drink turned into a cloudy sundown, pink and orange and wistfully beautiful. 

"I started out where you're at," Aaron told him and when Eddie glanced up he was propped against the counter, hands on its edge, Eddie bracketed between those muscular arms only that he was sitting on the opposite side. "Stayed at the Inn when I first came to town. I was on route to Halifax." 

"Really?" Eddie asked and Aaron nodded. "What made you stay?" 

Arron shrugged, looking around the restaurant for a second and scanning the room for tables that needed assistance. Eddie could tell that he felt like he'd already revealed too much private information, so he decided not to push it. Instead he finally tried that drink, his mouth symbiote-free since he'd finished the pizza. The cocktail was punchy and sweet, carrying a hint of bitter peach along with a faint saltiness and a rich cool smoothness that reminded Eddie of melted ice cream. 

"This tastes like summer," he told Aaron in amazement, smiling at him. "How'd you do that?" 

Aaron grinned. "Haitian heritage recipe with a twist," he informed Eddie, taking his empty plate from him. "It's even better with some rum." He winked at Eddie before making a round through the room and taking more dishes into the kitchen. 

Eddie turned back to his drink and put his mouth back on his straw. Venom was silent, was wound around his spine and webbed between his ribs. The abiding echo of the sharp pain was still there. 

"Hey, do you know if there's a hiking path up east?" Eddie asked once Aaron was back behind the bar. "Further out, behind the diner?" He gestured towards the general direction of the road he had followed to its deadend this morning. "Towards the shore?" 

Aaron took a moment to think about it, before shaking his head. "There's a trail out there, but I don't think it's used for hiking. It's always muddy and slippery during this time of year. Dangerous." 

"I was hoping I could take some shots of the cape and the old harbor down the slope," Eddie explained, filing the warning away for later. Maybe Aaron knew more than he let on. Maybe everyone in Easbell did. 

"You're one of those photographers," Aaron concluded. Eddie couldn't read his expression, couldn't tell whether he was impressed or disenchanted. 

"Taking pictures for a travel guide," Eddie lied. "Writing a couple of pages on wildlife exploration." 

"There's not much up there," Aaron told him again. "Besides it's private property." 

"Someone lives that close to the shore?" Eddie asked, feigning surprise. 

"Not during the winter," Aaron informed him, but he avoided Eddie's eyes. "The beach plum bank house is a summer cottage." 

"Beach plum bank?" Eddie echoed. "Sounds poetic." It didn't necessarily sound like the hideout lair of a terrorist, a criminal. Two even. It sounded like a retirement home. 

"Lots of sand and dirt up there," Aaron said. "And salt. It's everywhere, in the soil, in the air, up your nose and in your mouth. It's terrible. The place is only ever beautiful for a few weeks between mid-May and the end of June when the plums are in bloom. That's beach plum syrup in your drink there," he added and Eddie was grateful for the change in topic. He didn't want to ring any alarm bells by being suspiciously interested in the lone summer cottage up on the bank. 

"The purple stuff?" he asked, just went with it. 

"The purple stuff," Aaron confirmed. 

"See, now I understand why people might be tempted to stay here," Eddie told him and they lightly smiled at each other for a second. "Between mid-May and June," he added and when the smiling continued, Eddie got so flustered that he had to look down, reaching for the straw instead to finish up his drink. 

* * *

"You're a dick, Eddie," Venom informed him as soon as they were three steps out in the open. Eddie's stomach still hurt, from the food, from Venom's death grip, maybe from the bittersweet plum, but if he concentrated on his feet and legs instead, he could almost forget about it. 

"Who taught you such language?" Eddie asked without bite. He knew, better than anyone, the kind of dick he could be. "I'm just vain, that's all," he added in his defence though. "I like people liking me." 

It was still early in the evening, but it was dark and the streets were empty. A Sunday afternoon mood took hold of Easbell. The wind was gusting loudly from the sea into town and the air was filled with a salty mist. 

"You like people wanting you," Venom corrected as Eddie tried to zip up his jacket again. 

"Alien-monster _and_ psychoanalyst," Eddie mused absently, burying his hands into his pockets. "I really got lucky finding you."

"We found you," Venom argued. They wrapped themself loosely around Eddie's neck, protecting him from the strong breeze and a stiff neck.

"We found each other," Eddie offered, making his way through the empty streets. His car was parked just a minute from the pizza place, but given his run-in with the McFarlane woman, he'd rather only be seen driving it back to the motel. "Did you like the food though?" Eddie wondered. 

"Which one?" Venom asked and Eddie's feet came to a halt. 

He took a second to complete a mental and emotional inventory, realizing that he was indeed in a good mood. If he wasn't too careful to throw such words around, he'd diagnose himself with happy. Eddie figured that made him at least runner-up for symbiote host of the month. 

"So no need for extra chocolate tonight," Eddie guessed. He stretched his arms out in front of him in hopes it would magically give him a little more room in his jacket. 

"We wouldn't say no to chocolate," Venom said as Eddie nodded along. He already knew that his symbiote would argue in favor of chocolate every single time. 

Eddie followed the street deeper into town, there was no use chasing up that beach bank trail a minute after he'd been told of its existence. He still planned to go. He planned to go even when it was dark and whether a storm was coming their way or not. Venom would protect him from slipping and falling, from tumbling down the peninsula and towards the waterline. Venom would allow him to take a good look around the property. Venom would be a mere black shape in the black night. 

But he wanted to do it tomorrow, closing in on the property from the other side, from off the coastline, first during daytime and on foot. He'd bring his camera for some legal investigation before he'd sink down to trespassing in the name of journalism. 

"You know," he started as they walked towards a convenient store. "Causing me pain, doesn't make me happy though. You get that right?" 

Venom remained silent how he so often did these days, causing Eddie to fumble with the cuffs of his sleeves. 

"I'm not mad that it happened," Eddie went on, couldn't stop himself from feeling defensive. "I didn't mean what I said to Aaron and you didn't what happened afterwards. It was a spur of the moment thing, like, maybe jealousy got the best of us," he rambled on. "And what if it's a little hot to know that you still care about me, and by that I mean care about me in _that_ way, like, it's been a while, no? It's flattering, I guess, in a fucked up way," he said although he was in no way an apologist of abusive behavior. He wasn't. "So, what I'm saying is that those things happen, but they're not okay, you know?" he added to convince himself. "You understand that, right?”

He had his hand around the handlebar of the door to the shop, but he waited for Venom's reply before pulling it open. "Tell me you understand that," he prompted the symbiote again.

"We understand, Eddie," Venom just said. 

It was good enough for him. 

"Let's go get some chocolate then," he announced, thinking how having a symbiote was unnecessarily expensive if one was suffering from a complicated mood disorder and was a bit iffy about murder. 


	4. Chapter 4

There was plastic wrapping from five different chocolate bars in the pocket of his jacket once they got back to the motel and the bed was still unmade from before, with all of his clothes unfolded atop of it. 

"You're not gonna let me die if we go up there tomorrow, are you?" Eddie asked, sorting all the underwear and socks into his bag and staking all his shirts neatly draped over the back of the same chair. 

"We'll try," Venom said. More of them had come out of Eddie's body. A thick black pool was spilled by the pillows on the bed, and with only their eyes visible on a narrow octopus head they were watching TV. 

Eddie nodded and smiled. He liked this part of being on the road. The early nights in the hotel rooms, making a place theirs although it wasn't. Being with Venom, face to face. A reminder that he wasn't alone, that they weren't alone. 

He stripped out of his jeans and sweater, desperate to join his symbiote on the bed. He propped his head up against the extra pillow and tried to get into the story playing out on screen. 

It took a mere five minutes until the puddle on the bed had moved and was now a puddle on Eddie's stomach. Enjoying the contact, Eddie used his fingertips once more to draw shapes onto the shiny dark alien matter in tender strokes. His wrists were brushing over his own skin every now and then, the change in his body making itself further known. 

"Hey V," he tried for the second time that day. It still didn't sound right. "You double-check a lot of what's going on in there, right?" he asked, gently tapping on his stomach. 

"We do, Eddie," Venom confirmed, but they kept their eyes on the movie or whatever episode of whatever TV show was on. 

"So, you've noticed that I put on a little weight?" Eddie wondered, grimacing at the awkward question. 

"We have," Venom just said, their attention with the dialogue on the screen more than their conversation. 

"But it doesn't have to be like that, right?" Eddie went on despite it. He'd given up on catching on to the plot. "You could just take most of the stuff we eat for yourself." 

At that, Venom's head rose further out from the puddle until their teeth were visible too and then they turned all the way to face their host. 

"But we like it, Eddie," they said and, as if to make a point, melted back immediately into and onto Eddie's belly, swaying with the comfort and Eddie's laughter. 

"Okay love," he said, wasn't going to work his brain into disputing an argument this watertight. He could always just buy a new jacket. 

* * *

The first thing Eddie did in the morning after getting dressed was call his editor and tell him about catching a possible glimpse of Barnes the other day in the diner. He kept the picture to himself to buy himself some time and keep his editor from running with the picture alone and assigning the accompanying words to someone else. Without any prompting suggestions, his editor told him to stay in town and follow the story. Reassuring himself that the newspaper would cover the costs, Eddie agreed although he wouldn't have left anyway. 

Afterward, he headed for the motel office again, putting down the money for the entire week, for an extra set of towels and another pillow just to even out some of those red numbers that he'd learned of yesterday. 

The old Frankie McFarlane didn't smile, but he put some of his coffee from the machine into a paper cup, told Eddie to take it to go and to keep warm. For a second Eddie imagined Aaron in his own spot and smiled. 

"Will do," he assured the old man, before stepping out into the morning, taking a deep breath. 

He had his camera slung around his wrist but kept a steady grip on it anyway. Beneath his jacket, Venom was hanging off his back in a piggyback fashion, wrapped around Eddie's neck and waist. The pain in his stomach was fully gone by now, although Venom had left a shadowy bruise just below his navel and beneath the buckle of his belt. This morning in the shower, Eddie had fit his palm over it, pressing down while he'd jerked himself off, Venom in veiny threads all around his fingers, hands, and forearms. 

They hadn't talked about it afterwards. Both of them were pretending they hadn't thought about it afterwards. 

The wind had calmed overnight but still chased fallen leaves and loose twigs down the pavement. It carried the scent of sea, good and bad, up from the coastline, and the closer Eddie got to the lower cape banks the more sand got caught in his eyes and on the wet spot his tongue left occasionally on his bottom lip. 

"I smell lobster," Venom exclaimed, excitement back in their voice. 

"I know," Eddie told them. He was decidedly less font of it and kept his nose out the wind whenever he got a chance. 

The ocean was one big wall of gray in front of another gray wall that constituted the horizon, but the scenery was striking nonetheless. He stood there for a moment on the thin trail leading towards the beach, feeling small and displaced as he realized they had really made it across the country, coast to coast. 

"This isn't the worst place in the world, is it?" he asked, closing his eyes as the sight threatened to overwhelm him. 

"It's not home though," Venom reminded him, their tone almost wistful. 

"No, it's not," Eddie agreed, shaking the moment off before he turned the camera on. 

He filled his camera roll with vivid pictures of crashing waves and the blustery shore in case he would be asked to produce evidence of his cover story. It didn't bother him. The landscape was breathtaking and he didn't mind having more than enough pictures to take home. He even entertained the thought of writing a faux essay for the travel guide that didn't exist. There was enough inspiration around that it wouldn't take him more than an hour or two. 

They walked the beach up for about a mile, before heading west, hopefully intersecting the trail that would take them towards the private property on the bank just north of Easbell. 

Eddie got his collar propped up and kept his hands in his pockets, Venom holding onto the camera for him so he could warm up. The symbiote took a couple of pictures too, mostly of empty seashells and strangely formed rocks as well as one of Eddie's shoes. They took another selfie too, on Eddie's phone, the sea in the back and both their eyes squinted in the wind. 

It was an hour and twenty minutes after they'd left the Oceanways Inn, that they finally came by the barely-walked path, and Eddie took the camera back in his hand just to be sure. 

The further up they went, the more difficulties arose in their path. Thick and sturdy branches that grew low above the ground, stiff and unyielding like roots, the sand beneath them that blew up with the gusts despite the wet air, the dense fog that threatened to freeze in the cold weather. 

Any person without superpowers, or whose abilities weren't otherwise enhanced, wouldn't be able to walk this path at night without getting seriously hurt. It was the perfect deterrent. 

Fighting the impossibility of not stumbling, they made their way up the slope, but it took both their skill, their coordination, both their balance, both their attention and both of their best foot work to make it happen. 

Every ten or twelve steps Eddie stopped to catch his breath and to take a couple of pictures to be able to later pinpoint their location. He was planning on memorizing the trail as best as he could to lessen the strain when they came back here later today. He guessed they were still about half a mile from the house. The wind had picked up again and Eddie could sense an impending headache from the way the cold air ate away from his forehead. 

Occasionally, Venom came out to warm his temples, but although the symbiote didn't use to be affected by cold temperatures, their time on earth had made them more sensitive to it. Venom's time with Eddie had made them more sensitive to it. Their time together in California. They'd become a west coast cliché and Eddie smiled at the realization. He wondered if maybe Venom had become more heat resistant too, but he hoped they would never have to find out. 

Twenty minutes later the house came into view, although far off and behind a couple of rough looking pine trees that had no business growing so close to the beach. Eddie ducked down, placed his camera on one of his knees to keep it steady. 

"Can you see the pickup, love?" he asked, his cheek pressed against the camera case and with one eye squeezed shut as he zeroed in on the summer cottage looking for a sign of inhabitants. 

Venom peered up over Eddie's head, stretching out further into the wind racing past them. 

"It's parked behind the house, Eddie," Venom informed him, returning to Eddie's shoulder for shelter. "We can see the empty back." 

"Good," Eddie remarked, grinning into his camera. He could feel himself closing in on the story. "Can you take a picture?" he asked, holding up the camera. 

Venom hesitated, but Eddie didn't change his mind. His own eyes were too bad to make out the shape of the truck's back. He should have given Venom a lesson much sooner. After a couple of seconds, Venom finally took the camera and Eddie smiled when he heard the clicks of the shutter. 

Afterwards, he took more photos himself and they waited for ten more minutes until Eddie considered heading back. He couldn't imagine anyone going out in this weather, but it might just give Barnes and Rogers the cover they needed to get moving. 

"You think they're just holed up in there?" he wondered with his eyes on the house still. They were watery from the gusting wind and his fingers had gotten familiarly stiff by now. "Planning to stay for a while?" 

"Like a vacation?" Venom asked and Eddie hummed. 

"Basically," he said, turning for a quick second to check on the weather coming for them from out the sea. 

"Are they friends, Eddie?" Venom asked. He still had his head out despite the stormy cold which was a testament to his curiosity. 

"I think so," Eddie replied. His knees began to ache and he knew they had to head back soon. The miles back along the cape wouldn't get any shorter. 

"Like us?" Venom asked, strangely excited. 

"Not like us, love," Eddie told them out of reflex, before leaning back from the lense in pause. "Unless-," he started, words running out as he thought about it. 

"Unless what, Eddie?" Venom pressed, apparently very interested in the local gossip if it didn't involve Eddie flirting his way to the freshest scoop. 

"Unless everyone refused to see what was right there in front of them," Eddie finished. Admittedly, things were beginning to make more sense now. A lot more sense. "Come on," he said nonetheless, "we gotta start heading back. Good job though, love." 

Venom basked in the praise, his head sitting on Eddie's shoulder all the way back down the trail and along the beach. 

The wind didn't seem as strong as soon as they were back on the street that led them directly into town. Eddie's nose was running constantly now from the salty air and all the paper tissues in his pockets were gross and damp but his lungs felt clear and his breaths came easy. He thought he got a good grip now on the story he was going to write down, a love story that reached past good and evil, heroes and villains, past time and death, past the snap. A love story that explained why Captain America had fallen from grace, had stood by only his own set of rules. Why he'd disappeared. It was a good story and Eddie didn't care much about how it was going to end. He was a reporter, no policeman. 

* * *

They spent the afternoon in bed, Eddie on his laptop, forming full-fledged sentences out of his notes and sorting the pictures into a map-like collage while Venom watched more of their TV show and snacked on leftover chocolate bars from last night. 

"How is this still on?" Eddie asked, when another episode started. 

"It's a marathon, Eddie," Venom informed him without looking away from the television. 

Eddie reached for one of the candy bars for himself, realizing once more at random how hungry he was. They would maybe have to pick up something on their way out later today. 

"I think we can leave the camera behind tonight," he said, mostly to himself. "It's just extra weight slowing us down and we would have to be careful not to lose or break it." 

He just wanted to confirm with his own eyes, their own set of eyes, that Barnes was in that house and, hopefully, that Rogers was with him. The only thing that bothered him was Mcfarlane's stepdaughter and her threat. He was worried she might stage a break-in just to get him to leave town. He'd already left his laptop behind too often. 

"We gotta find a place to keep our stuff safe," he announced, his mind already working itself through the options. He could easily ask Venom to stash anything out of reach, but he couldn't risk accidentally freezing his hard drive. 

* * *

"Joey, my man," Eddie said by way of greeting as he'd reached the diner's counter and Joey blushed immediately when he recognized him. 

It was dumb luck, nothing more, but Eddie had hoped he was working again. 

"Listen, I've got a lead on some rare nocturnals, but I've got to check that spot out first before taking my equipment, so I was wondering if I could leave it with you for a couple of hours?" he asked, placing his zipped up duffle between them. "You'd be doing me a huge favor." 

"You're not trying to find a bear, are you?" Joey asked, but he was already taking the bag down onto his side. 

"Uh, no," Eddie assured him. "Something a little bit smaller," he added with what he hoped was a charming smile. 

"If this is about the northern bog lemmings," Joey started, turning his back for a second to safely store Eddie's things away. "They're not nocturnal. You can sometimes see them during the day too," he went on despite Eddie's confusion that most likely showed on his face. "They're a bit skittish, but you can wait them out." 

"I'll keep that in mind," Eddie just said, tapping on the counter with a finger. "Thanks." 

"We close at eleven," Joey told him and Eddie nodded. 

"I'll be back before eleven then," he assured him. "Might even stay for a late dinner," he added, but the hopeful look on Joey's face told him he shouldn't have said that. 

But there was no time to worry about that now. He was on a bigger mission. He and his symbiote. His love, his partner in crime. 

* * *

"We could have gotten a milkshake, Eddie," Venom said once they were back out in the cold, in the empty street. 

"No," Eddie told them. "Not this time, love. Maybe once we get back," he added, knowing that he would have to deal with two hopeful hearts later. "You remember the way?" 

"Of course we do," Venom said and as they started walking towards the darkness of the abandoned road Eddie felt his body filling out, Venom taking over, both of them disappearing into the shadow of the night as one. 

* * *

He couldn't have fully expressed what he'd been expecting. It wasn't like he really believed, he'd see Barnes and Rogers dance around in front of a window in a well lit room. But Eddie hadn't expected the house to look so entirely deserted either. He grew instantly frustrated, feeling helpless and stupid alike. His story seemed to be on life support, barely hanging on. Sure, there was the truck, but chances were it hadn't been used for two days and that Barnes and Rogers had already left town in an unknown vehicle. 

They walked slowly, careful not to disturb their surroundings. Although Venom was in charge of their every movement, they held out often to give Eddie a chance to object or change direction. 

Thanks to Venom's beautiful eyes, Eddie could see just fine in the moonless night, looking out for any hint of life. Anything that would tell him what to do next, to give his brain a good nudge. 

The weather was brutal and inside their combined form Eddie squeezed his eyes shut in guilt whenever Venom shivered in the cold. The mist was so thick it might as well have been raining and the wind wasn't taking any prisoners tonight. 

A milkshake wouldn't suffice, he needed his fucking brain to get going on some euphoria to make up for this. The least he could do was go for an adrenaline kick, but the fear of wrecking his story was holding him back from any reckless shit. 

"Let's go get a bit closer," he decided then, his heart rate picking up slightly. It was only fair and no matter what was going to happen, his stress would at least feed one of them. It wasn't going to be for nothing. Though he hoped for just a little bit more. Just a little bit. 

His hopes so low he was looking for nothing more than a flicker of movement from the curtains, maybe the faint sound of a creaking floorboard. He'd take a spooked bog lemming, stirred by the ghost of footprints. Beggars couldn't be choosers after all. 

"Wait," he said then, the blessed sensation of a fresh idea running through him. The closest thing to euphoria he'd felt since before the snap. "Please tell me you remember seeing some trash cans when we've been here earlier," he prompted, trying to relax into Venom's body all around him as he waited them out. He didn't manage, the tension of suppressed excitement and the urgency of inspiration too strong. 

"Only one, Eddie," Venom let him know. "By the truck." 

Eddie almost jumped through their skin in celebration. This was good news.

"What do you say," he started, grinning inside their shared body as he passed on his idea. "To someone looking out the window, straight into darkness and through this godawful soup of a fog," he went on, but paused then to let their cruel surroundings take hold of them once more for effect. "What are the chances of us passing for a hungry bear rummaging through the trash even if said person had superhuman vision?" 

"Feels accurate, Eddie," Venom just said and although it was a fucking brilliant idea to maybe confirm that someone was still living in that house, Eddie still agreed with his symbiote on that one. It felt awfully fitting. 

"Let's give it a shot," he said, adrenaline and dopamine pulsing through his veins, his brain finally doing something right. 

They walked further towards the eerie atmosphere of the house, the sound of their steps swallowed by the roaring winds. The corner of the house provided a little bit of shelter once they reached the trash can. For a second Eddie wondered who came up here to pick up the garbage during the summer, but then he held his breath, hoping they wouldn't end up staring into an empty container. 

He didn't know what he was hoping to find, but anything was better than nothing. Nothing would leave too much space in that dumpster to be filled with his unwritten cover story. Venom reached for the lid and Eddie braced himself for any savage truth. 

Then they pushed it open. 

"Eddie, look," Venom exclaimed in delight as their eyes fell on the lobster shells on top of some of the takeout packaging from the diner and some empty plastic bottles and soda cans. 

"These are fresh, aren't they?" Eddie asked just as excited. "Tell me these are fresh. That they haven't been lying in here for more than forty-eight hours. 

"They're not fresh, Eddie. They're dead," Venom reminded him gently. 

"I know," Eddie said quickly, "but for how long? A day." 

They stuck their head closer into the trash for a second before coming back for fresher air. 

"They don't smell all that gruesome yet," was Venom's professional judgement. "Maybe a few hours. They were cooked, Eddie, unfortunately." 

"Yes, unfortunately, love," Eddie agreed. He wanted to kiss Venom and then scream his relief that there was still someone in the house into the night. But there was no time for that. And this wasn't the place for it either. "We should go," he told them, but Venom was already putting the lid back in place. 

Once they had brought enough distance between them and the house, Venom turned them back around so they could observe the sinister scenery in front of them. 

Nothing. 

No curtain rustling, no wood cracking, no bog lemming darting through the night. 

"Come on, let's get out of here before I burst," Eddie said, all of his adrenaline and euphoria crying for release. 

It wasn't until they were a mile down the beach that they turned themselves inside out and swapped places again. Venom buried his cold body in between Eddie's organs and blood while Eddie howled with the winds, his arms stretched out, stumbling over the sands and through the darkness. Venom caught him whenever he misplaced a step, whenever his foot slipped on a smooth stone or got caught under some stranded dead branches. 

"I fucking love you," he yelled but he could barely hear himself over the blowing wind and the crashing waves. "I fucking love both of us." 

He was out of breath and frozen cold but his cheeks were flushed when he strolled back into the diner, feeling like a million dollars. It was just after ten but the diner was already empty. Eddie walked straight up to the counter where he shrugged out his jacket and hopped onto one of the stools. 

"You're back," Joey said, coming up from behind Eddie, a small bucket full of soapy water dangling from one of his hands while he held a sponge with the other. 

"I'm back and I'm hungry," Eddie announced, couldn't help his satisfied grin. "Unless you want to close early," he backtracked, as he took another look around. 

"We're not allowed to close early," Joey told him, setting his cleaning supplies aside. He dried off his hands before he pulled Eddie's bag out from under the counter and handed it back. 

"Thanks," Eddie said, taking it from him. "I owe you," he added and waited for Joey to turn away for a second before checking that nothing was missing. Satisfied, he zipped it back up and stored it next to his feet, draping his forearms out in front of him. "I'm Eddie," he said finally. 

That got Joey's attention and he turned back, one of those empty dish trays in his hands. 

"Did you find what you were looking for, Eddie?" Joey asked, but he continued cleaning up while he was at it. 

"Not really," Eddie admitted. "Saw some lobsters though," he added, the adrenaline getting the best of him. 

"You should head for the beach just before sunrise," Joey advised him. "You might catch sight of some whales." 

Eddie nodded, thinking he would actually love to see some whales. "Thanks," he said again. "Maybe we should switch jobs." 

Joey blushed once more, then shook his head. By the way he hovered on his spot for a second Eddie guessed he had wanted to add something, but then couldn't muster up enough courage. 

"You guys have some muffins left?" Eddie asked to change the topic before Joey would either embarrass himself or both of them. 

"Let me check," Joey said, looking relieved that he could get away and maybe take a couple of deep breaths before returning. 

Eddie didn't mind the wait either. He fidgeted with his own fingers to kill the time, smiling when Venom had a couple of threads to spare to keep him entertained. Although he had just spent more than an hour fully submerged in his symbiote, he missed their touch. Missed their tactile connection. 

When Joey returned he carried two muffins on a plate in one hand and one of the diner's paper bags in the other. 

"Got you a couple extra to go," he told Eddie as he set it all down. "On the house." 

"Hey, no," Eddie objected immediately. "I'm gonna pay for those." 

"Don't worry about it," Joey said and dismissed the offer with a shake of his hand. "We have to throw these out anyway. And I'm pretty sure you're going to be our last customer today." 

Eddie hesitated for a moment. He knew he was probably sending the wrong message, but he could use the muffins and he wouldn't mind saving some money. 

"How about I'll make the last order worth it then?" he asked, picking up the menu. Maybe Venom had been able to feed off of some of his happy hormones, but Eddie was fucking starving. The only thing he'd gotten into his stomach today was the chocolate bar and the coffee. He was ready to go all out and order for two whether Venom was gonna join him or not. So much for trying to save some money. 

* * *

"So how does this town look in the summer?" Eddie asked, squeezing his burger between fingers and thumbs before taking a bite too big for his mouth. 

Joey was still cleaning up around him, most likely determined to get home as soon as he turned the sign on the door. Eddie checked the clock to make sure he still got a good twenty minutes to finish his food without overstaying his welcome. 

Venom was quiet, calm, possibly even content and they let Eddie have his share first, eat as much as he could fit comfortably into his stomach. Or uncomfortably, because the burger was fucking delicious and Eddie wouldn't even let one crumb go to waste. 

"During the day it's quiet too," Joey told him, topping up Eddie's soda. "The tourists usually head for the beaches early or they're out driving along the coast to see more of those other fishing villages and harbors down south. Around five all of the restaurants and bars start to fill and it's usually busy until long after midnight." 

"Did you manage to save up on those tips?" Eddie asked, wiping his fingers on a paper napkin. 

Joey shrugged and Eddie grinned, decided not to press it. Joey probably had his dreams, like all young people, that he wasn't eager to share with just anyone. 

"What happens to all those holiday homes when it's getting cold?" he wondered instead, taking a couple of fries at once to keep the impression of smalltalk going. While he chewed he paid special attention to Joey's answers though. "Isn't anyone scared they get broken into? Especially those farther out?"

For a brief second Eddie worried he blew it right there despite his innocent acting. Joey frowned as if crime was only a silly hoax thoroughly debunked. Then he went back to wiping and stacking the menus.

"Most of the owners come every year," he informed him. "They know people in town who check in on the properties. My mom used to dust and air a handful of houses to make some extra money during the off season. Some of the girls from the diner have houses to look after, but it takes a lot of trust for the owners to leave their keys. Very few prefer the risk of getting robbed to the risk of their homes being used for parties or whatever." He shrugged, but by the way Joey had said it, Eddie guessed the party-scenario had actually happened. 

"So your mom's a trustworthy person then," Eddie remarked, hoping it wouldn't come off as creepy either. He actually wanted to ask whether the summer cottage that seemed to give shelter to Barnes and Rogers was one of the very few holiday cabins that went unprotected during the winter, but he couldn't let his interest in that one particular house slip too soon. Instead, he really wasn't making the best impression with his stupid questions, but somehow Joey didn't seem to care. 

"She uses a wheelchair now, so there's really only one house she looks after still," he explained, his face giving away his disappointment. Given the unwalkable path Eddie had taken multiple times today, he shared the sentiment. Accessibility wasn't Easbell's strong suit. And the house up on the bank was a nightmare. 

"How about you?" he asked, trying to pass it off as a joke. "Looking after any houses?"

Joey shook his head and glanced down at Eddie's empty plate. With the time on the clock there was no way he could offer a top-up there as well. Luckily. 

"Not my thing really," he just said and Eddie wondered if he had a different source of additional income during the winter. It wasn't Eddie's place but part of him began to feel responsible for this boy. He didn't want him involved in anything, well, bad. "Bess is looking after most of the places now. She drives around all the houses every week or so. We haven't had a break-in since I can remember. I think we tend to watch out for anything or anyone suspicious here." 

Eddie nodded understandingly, forcing himself to overhear the threat. "Bess," he repeated instead. "She sounds familiar," he lied. "Isn't that-," he broke off, pretending he needed to think about it. 

"You've probably met her at the motel," Joey said immediately. "She's Frankie's daughter."

"Exactly," Eddie said, faking some satisfied recognition. In reality, he realized that he needed to be far more careful than he'd thought as he began entertaining a different take on the whole situation. If McFarlane's step daughter had knowledge of, or was somehow involved with what went on in that summer cottage on the beach plum bank, then she had one more reason to see Eddie out of town. "Speaking of," he started then, finishing his soda. "I should head back. Thanks again for looking after this," he added and reached for his bag. 

"Wait," Joey said and Eddie feared he'd be either called out for snooping around or he would have to have a really awkward talk with Joey about pursuing age-appropriate romantic interests. Neither option sounded too appealing. "I'll get you a milkshake to go," Joey said instead. 

Perplexed, Eddie stared at him for a moment before he nodded. "That sounds awesome," he said then, knowing he was going to hell for taking advantage of Joey's crush. 


	5. Chapter 5

They walked back to the diner, taking their time despite the ongoing wind and the freezing temperatures. Eddie was still high on whatever his brain produced and he liked being alone with Venom, out in the night where no one could see them sharing the milkshake. They passed it back and forth, the straw on Eddie's tongue before Venom slid their own down alongside it. 

"You know what I think," he started, taking another sip. He wasn't sure yet if this hunch was going to get him anywhere, but he needed to spell it out. See how it felt once he got it past his tongue. "I think this entire town is in on it." 

He looked down at Venom whose little head had been sneaking out from his sleeve again to check for the symbiote's reaction to his theory. They had a bit of whipped cream smudged on their forehead. Gently, Eddie wiped it off with his thumb, bringing it up to his lips afterwards. 

"What do you think, love?" he asked, suddenly overwhelmed with gratitude that he didn't have to do this alone anymore. 

"We don't like this place," Venom just told him. And Eddie frowned, thinking whether that made his theory more credible or less. 

"I know," he said. This wasn't the worst place, but it wasn't home either. Venom's words echoed in Eddie's head and he started feeling guilty again. For packing up so suddenly, for chasing that story so obsessively despite, or maybe because he knew it was going to take him away from it all. From witnessing what they had missed in those five years, in that blink of an eye. 

"Can we call Anne?" Venom asked, picking up on where Eddie's train of thought was heading. 

"Maybe tomorrow," Eddie said carefully. "It's late now." Given the time difference, they would easily be able to catch her before bed, but Eddie didn't think he could bear hearing her voice tonight. Or tomorrow for that matter, but he was ready to renegotiate then. "I think we could do with a hot shower and some sleep." 

"Not too hot though, Eddie," Venom reminded him and Eddie smiled softly in the darkness. 

"No, of course not, love," he assured them. He knew he wasn't going to get any rest. He was going to go over his theory again, over all his impressions, over all of the information he'd picked up on. 

* * *

They ate the muffins they had gotten for free last night for breakfast, still in bed and tangled up comfortably. Venom was everywhere, wound around one of Eddie's legs and wrapped around his shoulders. Draped over his stomach and threading between his fingers. The symbiote's head was tucked beneath Eddie's chin and they had their eyes closed while Eddie fed him the chocolate chips of his still soft toffee muffin. 

Eddie thought he could feel himself gaining some more weight but with the comfort oozing out their combined body, he found he didn't care. He believed he could pull it off well enough anyway and since they were going to stay in town for longer, he needed a thicker jacket and a warmer body anyway. By the looks of it, Rogers and Barnes weren't going anywhere either. Yet. So neither were Eddie and his symbiote. 

Eddie reached for his laptop, booting it up while he fumbled absently with the dark chocolate glaze on another muffin top. 

For almost an hour he tried every trick in the book to figure out who owned that damn house by the beach and whether it was rented out during the summers or whether it was kept as a private residence. 

He was just about ready to give up, when he had a minor break-through. He found the property offered for sale on one of the pre-snap listings. There had been no records then of a sale, but a lot of the paperwork from those five years was still missing from official records. Too much had been going on, was still going on, and every single administration was understaffed to this day. If the beach house had changed hands after the snap, it could be years until the legal documentation would be filed officially. For now, there was no way to guess when that sale had happened, if five years ago, six months or two weeks ago. 

Eddie wondered about the possibility that the sale had never formally taken place in the first place. At least the possibility that the previous owners hadn't seen a cent of that money. The owners could have vanished in the snap and their property auctioned off by heirs or extended family. If it hadn't been for Anne and Dan, Eddie would have lost everything too. 

"At least we know there's an actual chance they bought that place and aren't just occupying it," Eddie said to himself. It was possible that, if Barnes and Rogers hadn't somehow managed to obtain the property, that they were still posing as the new owners to get a foot in with the community. And by the looks of it, they had succeeded either way. "And now we got some idea how that house looks from the inside," he added, downloading all the information he could get. 

"We could just go and scare them a little," Venom suggested, voice sleepy. 

But Eddie didn't want to be the one setting those two off. For now. 

He wanted his story first. 

"We could, love, but I don't think we would get a good story out of it," Eddie reminded them. "There's a reason they're out here and I'm not sure scaring them is going to reveal what we want to know. Besides, we don't know what that metal arm can do. I'd rather you don't get hurt." 

"What about you, Eddie?" Venom asked, sounding more alert now.

"I don't want to get hurt either," he added although his safety hadn't really been on his mind. 

"Eddie?" Venom started and Eddie closed his eyes. He knew the conversation he was about to have, but he dreaded it beyond words. Still, he reminded himself to behave like an adult, closed the laptop and put it aside. 

"Yes love, what's up?" he asked, giving his hands something to do by stroking over Venom wherever he could reach. 

"We can make you feel pain without making you hurt," they said and Eddie's fingers stilled. Then a long silence stretched between them. 

There was no clock that could have ticked, but Eddie heard the heavy drop of every second passing by anyway. "It's not like that," he said then. It was a poorly phrased explanation and he knew while he spoke those words that it wouldn't be enough for Venom. 

"Like what?" the symbiote asked, rightfully pressing for clarification. 

"Look," Eddie started, sat up straight and pulled his knees up a little. Meanwhile Venom pulled back from him just enough so they could face each other. "It's not about the pain. I don't enjoy it," Eddie insisted. "I don't like getting hurt or being cold or falling down." He took a deep breath, didn't know what for. 

Venom waited for him to go on, but there was nothing to add. 

"Okay?" Eddie asked instead, couldn't bear more silence. 

"Okay, Eddie," Venom just said, then settled back on his chest where Eddie's telltale heartbeat would have given him away if they weren't otherwise connected anyway. 

But the symbiote knew better by now than to let that undermine Eddie's words. 

Eddie didn't know why he was doing better lately, significantly better and while the sensation of pain had made him feel alive in ways nothing had managed since the snap. And not just physically. He didn't know why his body reacted so strongly to it. And why in the way it did. He didn't like all those explanations at hand, thought himself more complex than that. 

"No, you know what?" Eddie snapped then suddenly. "Why don't you tell me," he announced, reaching for the symbiote, but they slipped from his grip. "It's your body too, I'm sure you know what's going on." He glared at Venom who was hovering in front of him, dodging his touch still. Eddie didn't even know what he planned to do with his hands. "Why'd you do that to me at the restaurant?" 

Venom chose silence for an answer once more although they were eyeing Eddie up carefully. 

"I see," Eddie remarked, he was getting annoyed. "Pleading the fifth again," he added, shuffling to the side of the bed. His move put his back between him and the symbiote so that's where their voice reached him from a second later. 

"You were rude," Venom said then, causing Eddie to gasp and turn in indignation. 

"I was joking," Eddie insisted. It was a poor defense. He could have been joking and be rude at the same time. It wasn't even unlikely. 

"You were tantalizing," Venom let him know, their eyes were narrow by now and they looked almost as vicious as the night they'd first talked. 

"You were jealous," Eddie muttered to himself. He'd started this, but he was tired of this. He couldn't remember why he hadn't just let it go. 

"You gave us a reason," Venom replied, couldn't just choose to overhear. 

Eddie lunged forward but Venom pulled back without a single second of delay. They were still sharing a body, sharing the muscles and the brain. Eddie held himself up with one hand on the mattress but pointed an accusing finger at Venom with the other. 

"You had no right," Eddie spat out although he was arguing within reason. But his anger was taking over all of his thoughts. His face must have keenly resembled that of his symbiote. "You were out of line."

"We were out of line?" Venom asked back, just as offended. They were face to face, their noses so close now, closer than they had been in a while. "This is our body," Venom went on, their tongue ghosting against Eddie's lips. "And you were whoring it out." 

Eddie felt his expression fall at once and then freeze. He stared at Venom although he couldn't stand their sight any longer. He pulled his body back from the mattress in a new, cold and thick anger. 

"Excuse me?" Eddie asked once he stood in front of the bed. Venom had been smart enough not to follow him. "Whoring it out?" he echoed. His voice had dropped low. "Oh, believe me," he added through clenched teeth, "you have no idea what it'd look like if I was putting out for real." 

Venom cocked their head. Their eyes were empty white shapes in their slick black alien skull, but they were never blank to Eddie, never lifeless. He knew what was coming before Venom opened their mouth. 

"We do actually," Venom reminded him of a time before the snap. There was recognition in their face, amusement too, but also the sickening arrogance of power. "A very vivid idea," they added. 

"Don't you dare shame me for what we did," Eddie warned quietly. He put emphasis on the 'we' but Venom didn't differentiate between themself and both of them, not like Eddie did. So his argument fell flat and Venom looked at him expressionless. 

"We don't even know what that means," they said, their voice carrying a trace of boredom. The symbiote had visibly lost understanding of Eddie's arguments, and had visibly lost interest in them too. That bastard even glanced towards the TV. 

"Go fuck yourself, V," Eddie said, throwing himself chest-first back on the bed. He would have stomped off if he wasn't carrying his symbiote everywhere he went anyway. 

More silence, more of that stubborn, deafening silence. And the sounds of Eddie's angry breaths, repeating infinitely. He didn't remember drifting off, but when the room came into focus again the TV was on and he was feeling stiff, lonely and hungry. He had no idea how much time had passed. 

"V, come here for a second," he said without moving. His voice was flat, his cheek squished against the crook of his arm, but he still thought it felt too loud. 

Eddie waited until the symbiote's head came into view before he spoke again. He wanted to ask them if they still loved him, but he couldn't. He was more afraid of how dumb his question would sound that what the answer would be. 

Venom knew what love was but had learned its human ways mostly from Eddie, a little bit from Anne and Dan and a little bit from all those TV shows they watched. Every day that Eddie woke up, alive and with all his organs intact, was usually a sign that the symbiote was still somewhat fond of him. 

They'd gone through a rough patch those couple of months, that whole year since the snap actually, and Venom was still right here with him. He didn't need to ask, but he wanted to anyway. 

"There's dopamine involved in pain," he explained calmly. Choosing the explanation at hand after all. "Endorphins, too, so the body can cope, keep functioning. That doesn't mean it feels good." 

They looked at each other for a moment, Eddie feeling obligated to hold the contact, this was a serious conversation after all, but after a couple of beats his eyes began to hurt from the angle and he had to close them again. 

"I know what it looked like the other day," he went on despite it, blinking at his symbiote every other second. "That day and then later that night, but I don't want to make it a habit, okay? I don't want those moments between us to be about pain. The sex," he clarified, feeling oddly embarrassed to spell it out. It wasn't like they were actually having any these days. "I don't want that to be about pain, okay?" he finished anyway. 

Venom watched him for a minute in silence again. Although they said nothing, Eddie wasn't feeling angry about it. He was aware that his body often sent signals that undermined his words. And he was aware that it wasn't always easy for the symbiote to make sense of it, to work through the distortion between the conscious and the unconscious. At the very least, Eddie must have become more interesting than the television again because Venom was paying attention to only him. 

"Okay, Eddie," they said eventually and Eddie nodded. 

He squeezed his eyes again and shifted uncomfortably. He vaguely considered stopping there, but addressing just half of the elephant would not only make him a shitty host, partner, and friend, but also a shitty journalist. And that was one thing Eddie Brock was not. 

"What's with the jealousy, V?" he broached the topic again. "I'm not changing my mind about this, us, unless you decide to ditch me," he said, trying to sound casual. "And I'd be seriously pining after you if you did," he added, huffing out a laugh but the thought hurt. 

"Like you were pining for Anne?" Venom asked. Their mouth looked disproportionately big from where Eddie was lying, disproportionately dangerous, but Eddie was staring at it in love nonetheless. 

"Worse," Eddie admitted. He reached out to run the side of his knuckle over Venom's chin. The symbiote leaned into the touch. "I'm sorry we've been fighting," he said then. 

"We don't want to have sex with Aaron," Venom said and Eddie nodded. He understood, but it wasn't that easy, was it? Because some dumb, strictly human, strictly pre-symbiote yes post-snap part of Eddie wanted to. 

Depression was a bitch and it was coming for his relationship. 

"How about we watch some TV?" Eddie suggested, knowing he was deflecting. But none of it mattered anyway. He wouldn't do anything about Aaron and subject Venom to it without their consent. He knew what that constituted as. And he would not risk Aaron getting his head bitten off if things took another turn either. And he wouldn't ruin the best thing that ever happened to him by cheating. 

He rolled around on his back instead, patted the softest parts of his stomach to invite Venom into his space. "Get comfortable," he said gently and with a smile. 

He could sense Venom's disappointment, but Eddie swallowed it down when he saw them do the same. It was the first sign he'd ever caught that the symbiote had a sex drive separate from his own, but he chose to ignore it. It would be too heavy a guilt to carry considering how long it had been. 

"You can catch me up on the plot," Eddie offered to gloss over the awkwardness. It didn't work, but Venom got in their spot anyway. 

* * *

For a couple of hours Eddie managed to shut his brain off and immersed himself into the show that turned out to be not that bad actually, at least it was quite captivating once Venom had filled him in on the character arcs. It was only after noon that Eddie grew a bit restless with the nagging guilt of lost hours and lacking productivity. He put his computer back on his lap, Venom spilled messily all around him on the bed. He opened the document with the rough draft of his article and stared at it for a bit. Then he deleted half a sentence only to backtrack and undo the change. Then he added another two words, wondering where yesterday's enthusiasm went. 

An hour later, he decided that he was going to make use of that printer at the office after all and get some of the real estate info he'd discovered on paper. At least he would feel accomplished if he could highlight some areas on the property plan or add notes to the listing he managed to get his hands on. 

He didn't bother to shower, but he washed his hands and face and flattened his hair with some water before he stepped out. He was lucky, because the old Frankie McFarlane was in and the door to the office stood open despite the low temperatures. When Eddie walked in without thinking, he stumbled in surprise when he saw that the motel owner wasn't alone, but was sitting at a smaller round table playing what looked like a game of Crazy Eights with two other elderly guys. 

All three men looked up at him with warm smiles on their faces when they first noticed being disturbed, then their expressions changed subtly while they took in his face. McFarlane stood, a hand on the shoulder of the man next to him, for support yet reassuring at once, his fingers so close to the other man's neck, his thumb circling against the skin. And at once Eddie realized that the man next to Frankie McFarlane was Bess's father, at once he understood how much he had offended her, understood how being stranded at this motel could have changed the course of Aaron's journey, at once he understood why McFarlane would rather go into debt than put one man on the street. 

Eddie looked away, embarrassed at how he had been staring at the intimate touch, but it was too late. The third guy had caught his gaze lingering, but when they made eye contact, he gave Eddie a kind smile too. 

"What can I do for you, son?" McFarlane asked, startling Eddie. 

He was too old to be called son, too disastrous of a person to be called son. He was too cut off from anyone but Venom, Anne and Dan to even feel like he'd ever been a son to anyone. He was just Eddie these days when he wasn't Venom. They were their own family tree. 

"Uh," he started, suddenly feeling guilty for how little attention he'd had left to spare for the old man before, how little he had appreciated the hospitality. "I was thinking," he started, trying to find some verbal footing again, some confidence. "I was wondering if I could use the printer?" he got out eventually. 

"Of course," McFarlane said, gesturing towards the old desktop computer on a smaller table in the corner of the narrow, still overheated room. "Just go ahead," he told Eddie. "You know your way around these better than me." 

Eddie nodded his thanks before heading over to log onto his cloud. The computer was so old that he had to manually connect to the internet beforehand and while he waited for the website to load, he glanced over to the small group of elderly men again. He made a mental note to buy a card deck at the convenience store, thinking that he could teach Venom a game or two to pass the time and reconnect in different ways. 

He checked that no one was paying him attention when he opened the files and clicked the print button, unwilling to answer any questions about his interest in the beach plum house. He folded the papers midway as soon as they were out of the printer, still warm and with smudging ink, not caring if that made him more suspicious. He didn't need anyone catching a glimpse of their contents. 

"Do you need the room cleaned sometime these days too?" McFarlane addressed him and Eddie looked up like an attentive son indeed. He didn't want anyone in his room, but he didn't want McFarlane worrying about its condition either. With what he'd learned about the inn, he figured there was no way the motel was still paying for anyone in housekeeping and he didn't need the old man scrubbing his bathroom on his own or worse, sending his step daughter his way. 

The conflict caused a hold up in his decision and he realized too late how it made him look. McFarlane nodded though, in gentle understanding. 

"I'm taking good care of it, sir," Eddie said, didn't know why he played along with both, his new role as prodigal son and troubled drifter alike. 

"Just let me know when you'd like those sheets changed," McFarlane told him and Eddie felt himself blush involuntarily. He was neither that lucky nor troubled. He nodded still, all eyes in the rooms fixed on him.

He expected more judgement from a small town like Easbell, but the faces of all three men showed him more compassion than he thought he would deserve, even if what they believed him to be and do were truths. 

He tightened his grip around his papers and eyed up the door, eager to get out. "Can you put this on the room?" he wondered, glancing over to the computer before bringing his gaze back to the old Frankie McFarlane. 

He waved Eddie off and started walking back over the table to resume his game. "Already done," he told Eddie who didn't quite believe that the old man was planning on charging him anything. 

Nodding again, Eddie decided he was just going to add a good tip to his next payment. "Have a good day," he said to the small group and headed out the office. 

With one foot barely on the threshold and the other still in the air, he stopped dead, catching his balance only with Venom's help. 

Right there in front of him, just a dozen feet or so away, stood Barnes's pick up truck, abandoned in the lot. 

"Why didn't you warn me?" Eddie asked, stress making its way through his body. He could already feel the heat and the sweat that came with it. 

"We sense people, Eddie," Venom reminded him. "Not cars." 

"Was this here before?" Eddie asked, frantically looking around the lot. He didn't know where to run first, his car or his room, the indecision rendering him immobile for a handful of seconds. 

Then he remembered that he'd left nothing of importance in his car and chose to bolt for his room instead. 

"We would have noticed," Venom said, attempting to be reasonable.

"Would we?" Eddie just asked, didn't want to hear about it. He needed to get to his laptop, his camera. 

He fully expected to stand in front of a murderous Barnes, knowing and angry, having somehow spotted them last night. They should have been more careful. They should have climbed the trees instead of following that horrendous trail, they shouldn't have gone for the trash. 

Bracing himself for a fight and in full fledged panic, Eddie ran straight up into the door, --face first like he did all his shit these days--, the side of his eyebrow taking the blow better than his nose. His vision blacked out for a couple of beats while Eddie felt blood run down his upper lip, fumbling blindly for his keys and dropping them instantly. 

His room was still locked, just the way he'd left it. 

"Is someone inside?" he asked, pressing the heel of his palm between his bleeding nostrils and his mouth. His vision returned, albeit blurry, and he lowered himself carefully into a crouch to fish his keys from the ground. 

"No one's inside, Eddie," Venom informed him. 

Eddie could feel the symbiote watching him, observing, waiting. There was a reason why he was still bleeding, letting them in with still unfocused eyes, with that throbbing pain in his swelling nose. 

"Eddie," Venom started, but Eddie waved them off. He didn't want to talk about it, discuss it further. He wanted to sit down and get cleaned up. 

"Keep an eye on the truck while I take care of this," he told Venom pointing towards the lot with a shaky finger. He brought it back against his neck. A terrible headache was spreading from the end of his spine towards his jaw, his head all scrambled from taking another hit in just three days. 

"Eddie," Venom tried again, but Eddie stopped them with another annoyed finger towards the car. 

"The truck," he said again, squeezing his eyes shut. Eddie, Eddie, Eddie, he was so sick of hearing his own name. He needed a goddamn break. Something wasn't right. He was feeling sick. Sick of the junk food and the chocolate and the milkshakes. Sick of Venom knowing him inside out. "The truck," he said again, bringing a hand between his legs. He wouldn't have put it past his body to betray him like that. But his dick was as soft as an overcooked noodle,--what a fucking relief--, yet something still didn't feel right. 

He needed to sit down somewhere desperately. In this moment, he wanted it more desperately than he wanted his story, than he wanted Barnes. He wanted to sit down and nothing more. His feet walked him into the bathroom just fine although Eddie couldn't tell if that was Venom's doing. The symbiote, however, kept their head by the window and their eyes on the parking lot. 

If Eddie hadn't seen himself in worse conditions, he wouldn't have recognized his face. His nose was purply-red and didn't match what he remembered in neither size nor shape. Blood was smeared all over his face, even up to his forehead and there were tears on his cheeks he didn't remember shedding. 

He got the tap running, but didn't get further than his hands under the water before he passed out. 


	6. Chapter 6

  
"Nonono no no," Eddie jerked awake, startled by his own voice, his arms twitching by his sides as he sat up. "The truck," he added, but then choked on the k, his body throwing itself into a coughing fit. The headache cut through him for a split second then vanished at once. 

His body relaxed, his face, his throat, his lungs and Eddie finally took in more of his surroundings. He wasn't in the bathroom anymore, he was on the bed, naked, threads of Venom loosely wrapped around him. 

"What happened?" he asked, turned to the window to get an idea of how much time had passed. It was still light outside and the yellow tint of the afternoon sun hadn't reached their room yet. "How long was I out? Is the-," he stopped, blinking through a wave of dizziness, "what about the-, the truck?" 

Venom's head appeared in his sight, eyeing him with a stern and concerned expression. They looked as gruesome as ever, but Eddie smiled when he saw them. 

"Hi love," he said, forgetting what he'd asked. Instead he leaned forward, trying to get his lips on his symbiote, but then his knees got in the way and he began to sway, drifting to the side and sinking back into the mattress with one shoulder. "I think I hit my head," Eddie said, his lips dragging over the sheets. 

"You did," Venom told him. "Twice," they added, sounding not too happy about it. 

"Where are my clothes?" Eddie wondered. He closed his eyes again, feeling exhausted suddenly, his eyelids heavy. 

"They were gross, Eddie," Venom said, his voice sounding so comforting to Eddie's tired ears. "We took them off." 

"Eddie, Eddie, Eddie," Eddie mumbled through lazy lips. "Never stop saying my name like that," he added, sensing that he'd glossed over an apology and promising himself he'd take care of that later. Later, after a little nap, after a bit of rest. Just a couple of minutes. 

Hunger woke him, hunger and a strange dream, and Eddie opened his eyes to only darkness. He brought his hands to his face, thinking maybe it was Venom webbed around him, but his skin made contact with only his own. 

There was not a trace of pain left, just a rare but familiar stillness that told him that the symbiote was sleeping. Carefully, Eddie rolled himself onto his back, stretching out his bare legs down to his toes, the sheets soft beneath his skin. The hairs on his stomach were damp from sweat and he wiped his palm up over the curve of his belly, over the fading phantom bruise, the air cooling him gently. 

He felt awfully heavy and exhausted still, a little drowsy and humiliated, but it was difficult for him to put all the pieces of what had happened together. He would need Venom's memory for that. Memories he couldn't access now even as he tried to concentrate. What he got were only bits and pieces of emotions he couldn't place. Maybe the symbiote was dreaming. 

Feeling that thinking too much might make the headache return, Eddie gave up. He didn't want that. He didn't want to think. 

His hand found his dick on autopilot, half-hard, half-hungry itself. He wasn't in the mood for sex, --when was he these days?--, but he was looking for a distraction. 

It was difficult to tell where he and Venom stood on this. Both of them were always at least partly involved but hadn't been doing it with each other in a while. The snap had scarred him. Not the snap, but the time lost. He hadn't felt truly comfortable in this new world for even a second since. And his guess was that Venom knew. 

They were hungry most of the time, in more ways than one, but they weren't complaining about it. For someone who usually complained about every little inconvenience, it was a worrisome behavior. But Eddie was grateful for it. 

Lying on the bed in the dark, he tried to pretend nothing had changed. That he was still in his shabby apartment, still filled to the brim with honeymoon love. The kind that had him grinning most days and moaning most nights. The kind that made him forget he'd ever had more to lose than his symbiote. 

It didn't work, but Eddie refused to surrender. 

He had no excuse for the way he grabbed himself, almost forcibly, holding onto himself as if that would bring him back to before. To before the snap, to before everything had changed. To who he had been. To who they had been. 

A perfect match. 

He stroked himself with more patience than he'd expected from himself, waiting for his body to react because he needed it to react. Thinking he'd be able to manifest an erection, he tried to picture it. His hard cock between his legs, like before, hard for hours because Venom wouldn't grow tired of him. 

He was glad that he couldn't see, that no one could see him, but he felt odd being alone, being left alone. It was the kind of odd that allowed him to go on though. There was less pressure now. 

His cock filled embarrassingly slow for someone his age, but there was nothing that could make him feel worse now anyway. Not how small his dick felt and how weak, not how the softer parts of his stomach were stirred with every stroke, not how desperate he was or how pathetic. Pathetic not because he was masturbating in a motel room in the middle of the night, but because he was crying as he did so, feeling the pain of his own inability to heal himself. To suck it up and push through. To conquer his depression. 

As the first tears parted with the corner of his eyes, the pain doubled and the helplessness, and the frustration and for a moment he couldn't breathe with the intensity of it. Then his fingers were joined by delicate tendrils, mimicking his own touch and a stranger's alike. Eddie moved his fingers along with them before he let himself be swept away by the touch, Venom willing to look after him. 

Eddie grimaced in the darkness, his face distorted by his emotions, the hurt and the relief and the humility, because they symbiote hadn't touched him in so long. Not like this. He closed his eyes, swallowed around the lumb in his throat, too scared but unable to speak anyway. 

Venom touched him in long forgotten ways, their knowledge of Eddie's body exceeding his own. For comfort and in some unspeakable desperation did Eddie wrap his arms around his chest, holding himself to keep from shaking. Venom wasn't anywhere else on him but his cock. Why, Eddie didn't know. It felt right and wrong alike. Their touch was precise and arousing, but felt distant, felt like he was with someone else, someone new, not himself. Themselves. He and his symbiote. His love. 

Venom was moving up and down the length of his cock, squeezing him, milking him, teasing the slit with a tendril just a hint too big, tempting and threatening alike, and Eddie bit his lip, refusing to participate in the decision making. He forced his breaths through his nose, too loud in the small room, too loud in this small town, during the off-season, too loud for his own ears. 

As subtle as he could, Eddie placed his palm back on his stomach over the spot Venom had made hurt for him. This time though, he didn't press down, just remembered the heat of the jealousy, the taste of Venom wanting him to be all theirs. 

He still felt pleasure when he came, had so all year, but it didn't compare to the kind of orgasms they had shared before the snap. The satisfaction of the climax washed over him severely subdued, didn't make him shudder and twitch, didn't make him tumble and fall into a headless joy, didn't make him clutch the sheets in an overwhelming haze. 

He felt spent and wrung out, but there wasn't a single drop to testify to his release, Venom taking care of it like they usually had. But this time, Eddie wished the symbiote hadn't. This time he wished he could have felt all of it, seen all of it, the release as some sort of evidence that he wasn't broken. 

"As if you wouldn't have complained either way," Venom remarked. Eddie couldn't see them in the dark, but judging by their voice, the symbiote was somewhere above him, looking down at him on the bed. 

Eddie huffed, but he couldn't deny it. "Did I really get myself a concussion by walking into a door? And for no reason apparently?" 

"By walking into a door and then later by hitting your head on the sink," Venom told him, their head coming down to Eddie's shoulder. 

"Great," Eddie said, resting his chin against the symbiote's forehead. This close to Venom he could see their eyes, faintly glowing in the night. "And Barnes?" he asked. 

"The man from the pictures came to get the car," Venom informed him, maybe deliberately refusing to spell out Barnes's name. They didn't like when Eddie mentioned him. When Eddie was preoccupied with him. Obsessed with him. 

"To leave town?" Eddie interrupted him. "Do you think he left town? Was he in a rush?" 

"No, Eddie," Venom said quietly. They didn't share Eddie's worries, his urgencies. "He seemed calm. We took pictures, Eddie." 

"You took pictures?" Eddie asked, tilted his head to face Venom properly. "With the camera?" 

"Yes, Eddie," Venom said. They nodded, drawing movement over Eddie's shoulder. 

"While you took care of my stupidly vulnerable human brain?" Eddie wondered, feeling humbled again and loved. 

"While we looked after you," they confirmed. 

The unexpected news excited Eddie, but he still felt too tired and too comfortable to act on it now. There would be more time to get back into the investigation tomorrow. What did another wasted day matter, in Easbell, Maine in winter. 

"Did I throw up on myself?" Eddie asked, scrunching his nose and squinting his eyes.

"Nothing we haven't seen before," Venom assured them. 

"Please tell me I didn't drop any of those papers I printed outside," Eddie added. He was ready to put this entire day behind him for good. 

"They're on the desk, Eddie. You put them there," Venom reminded him. 

Eddie nodded although he couldn't remember. "Thanks, love," he said, tone tender as he meant a series of things that Venom had done for him today. His eyes locked with Venom's and his hands began aching for more contact. 

"We missed this, Eddie," Venom said and Eddie nodded again. 

"Me too, love," he told them, reaching out to brush his hand along their jaw. "Can I see more of you?" Eddie asked, but what he actually meant was whether he could touch more of them. 

Venom wrapped more of themself around the body they shared, reaching for Eddie in the manner he reached for them. 

"Let's get some more rest," Eddie said, remembering that the symbiote had been sleeping before. That he had woken him with his random attempt to get off. 

Venom didn't protest. They closed their eyes instead, the distant glow disappearing from between them. 

"How hungry are you?" Eddie wondered, speaking softly into the darkness. His lips brushing against more of Venom. His own hunger had faded, so he guessed his brain had produced some of the good stuff in the wake of his orgasm. 

"We're fine, Eddie," they said, sounding a little sleepy even. To Eddie's knowledge that was another first. 

"Am I fine?" he asked. Almost hesitantly, almost afraid of the answer. 

But non came. Only a rare yet familiar stillness. 

"I am fine," Eddie whispered. He let his lie seep into the darkness before giving it another try. "I want to be fine." 

* * *

In the morning, Eddie stumbled into the bathroom feeling a little subdued still, a little groggy, a little off beat. Worst things first, he thought, fighting the instinct to spend all morning dissecting the photos his symbiote had taken. He had promised to take care of this room and he didn't need the old Frankie to come in and check if everything was still in place only to find this embarrassing mess.

Venom had put his clothes into separate piles, --of course they had--, his shirt and socks in the farthest corner of the shower, jeans and boxers in the other. The room smelled faintly of all things gross, -- blood, vomit and maybe even urine. There was a little rusty brown spot on the tiles by the sink from a head wound Eddie didn't remember acquiring. 

He opened the window first before he balled up a ridiculous amount of toilet paper to wipe the floor with, the best he could do without proper supplies, using just warm water and soap, before carrying his damp clothes into the laundry room. 

He couldn't just dispose of them, he didn't have too many clothes to begin with and he still needed to spend some money on the new jacket. 

Feeling no rush, although he probably should have, he sat down on one of the chairs and allowed Venom to watch the clothes soaking and sloshing and spinning around for almost forty-five minutes. The air was cold and crisp, but the sun was out. 

"We should buy some food to store in the room," Eddie suggested. They couldn't go hungry all the time or head for diners and restaurants non-stop, --no matter what Venom had to say on this matter--, and they couldn't just fuck every time to fight starvation either. They could, but it didn't sound healthy to Eddie, given the state of their relationship. Given his mental state. They had an empty mini fridge in the room but before today Eddie hadn't bothered to stock it up. It was time, however, to come up with a real plan, to fill in the draft of his article, to stop snooping around and start putting in the work.

He needed answers to his questions, he needed first hand information, he needed evidence to back up his claims. He needed quotes. He needed to get closer to Barnes and he needed an actual sighting of Rogers. He needed to stop getting distracted by everything else in this town and himself. But first, he needed coffee. 

"No, Eddie. No coffee," Venom argued, paying attention to Eddie's thoughts this morning. 

"Okay then, no coffee," Eddie told them. He wasn't in the mood for a fight. Not after Venom had possibly saved his life yesterday and then possibly his sanity later that night. "Hot chocolate?" he offered instead, checking the timer on the washer. He was just going to wait for it to finish before tossing the clothes into the dryer. It would give him enough time to go on a grocery run, get his jeans out on his way back and then bury himself with the article for the rest of the day. 

Surprisingly, for such a small town, Easbell had one of those supermarkets that were usually reserved for large suburban family needs: endless aisles and shelves, a dozen different brands for the same products, toasters, blow dryers and microwaves, DVDs and video games, make-up and cosmetics, some stuffed animals and toys and jeans in six different sizes and tennis shoes in just four. 

Pushing his cart through the entrance, Eddie entered the grotesque post-apocalyptic world that took hold of these places that relied so heavily on summer tourism during the winters. The place was almost empty, ghostly and way too cold. 

Fresh vegetables and fruits were beautifully presented and yet all Eddie could think of was how many of these would end up in the trash in just twelve hours. Technically, he could just wait and steal them then. But Venom didn't really like to eat plant-based food, -- chocolate aside --, so they wouldn't be of great help. They even grumbled quietly when Eddie stopped to check out some of the prices. He felt he could use some vitamins after nearly bashing his head in just a day ago. 

"What are you doing?" Venom asked when he picked up the biggest cabbage he'd ever seen. 

"I don't know, what does it look like?" Eddie asked back absently, putting the cabbage down and picking up a richly purple eggplant. "We can't just eat take-out all the time." 

"You don't look like a guy who knows what to do with these," a voice behind them said and when Eddie turned he found Aaron standing in front of him. Beautiful, tall, dark and handsome bartender Aaron. In a thick woolen sweater and with a smile on his face. 

Eddie only realized he was smiling back up at him when it was too late to stop it or play it down. He gave that thing in his hand a contemplating glance before he looked back at Aaron. 

"Not this guy again," Venom remarked, but Eddie ignored them.

"Guilty as charged," he said instead. The joke was right there, but it didn't seem like the time. Besides, maybe Eddie looked like the kind of guy who didn't know what to do with 'those' either.

Aaron stepped closer to take the vegetable off his hand. "How about I'll teach you?" he asked and Eddie couldn't tell if the joke just got turned back around on him. "Tonight at my place?" 

That didn't clear things up either. 

Eddie felt his cheeks blush and he heard Venom groan in annoyance in the back of his head. 

"I'll cook," Aaron clarified although Eddie's brain went elsewhere nonetheless. 

"Sounds good," Eddie heard himself say. Heard himself going out on a limb while simultaneously dissociating from the decision. He had no idea what he was doing and why. 

Aaron held his eyes for a beat longer and his smile widened, before he just nodded and looked down. He reached for something in his pocket, pulled out his phone and unlocked it. Then he held it out to Eddie. 

"Just put your number in and I'll text you the address," Aaron told him but Eddie hesitated. 

He wasn't quite sure why. Being a journalist he handed out his number nonstop. He was used to changing his number in case his sources turned on him. A phone number wasn't a big deal to him. 

So he shook it off and typed the digits into Aaron's contacts. For whatever reason and because he'd hit his head yesterday he put the eggplant emoji behind his name before he saved it and handed the phone back. 

"You don't have any allergies, do you?" Aaron asked, slipping the phone back into his pocket. 

Eddie shook his head. He looked at Aaron, liked the view, but he was starting to feel guilty too. Work, he told himself, this was for work. This was going to help his story along. 

"Great," Aaron added, probably sensing the shifting mood. Sensing the approaching awkwardness. "See you later?" he offered. 

"See you later," Eddie agreed. 

He gave Aaron another smile before wheeling his cart into the next aisle. As soon as he'd turned the corner, he brought his hands up to his face, hiding his eyes behind his palms. 

"I am so sorry." He spoke into his skin, but he knew Venom could hear him anyway. 

"Needy, Eddie," was all that Venom seemed to want to remind him of. "So needy." They sounded so fed up with his bullshit. As if both of them weren't a colossal mess. 

"I promise, nothing's going to happen," Eddie said quickly, wrapping his fingers back around his cart. "Plus, it's free food." 

Venom considered his last argument while Eddie packed some donuts and a handful of granola bars into their cart. 

"What kind of food?" they asked then and Eddie realized his mistake. 

"The regular kind," he told them though there was a time when they had truly lived on nothing but their love alone. When they had spent their weekends in bed, marathon sex not the only thing providing a steady flow of chemicals that kept Venom well fed. Back then, simply being together, being in love, had been their regular food, the symbiote ensuring that Eddie's body had no deficiencies. But that was a long time before, before the snap, before the time they'd lost. 

"So no sex?" Venom asked and Eddie felt his cheeks warming up. He turned around to check that Aaron was nowhere to be seen before he answered. 

"No sex," he assured them, checking out the selection of chocolate cookies but he could barely concentrate. 

"But wouldn't sex make you happy?" Venom added, almost heartbreakingly defeated.

Eddie stopped his search for quick and easy snacks and looked up. He knew he had no one to face, no one to look back at him. Not here, not in public. 

"No, love," he said, putting his hand flat over his chest. "Not with him." 


	7. Chapter 7

He put his pair of jeans from the dryer over the chair that held onto all his shirts already and set the bag of groceries down by the fridge. Truth be told, he was already looking forward to the dinner at Aaron's, to his first home cooked meal in weeks. There were some sodas in the bag, a card game he'd thought would be fun, too much chocolate and chocolate milk, a chicken salad sandwich, some crackers and peanut butter as well as a small jar of what was advertised as pungent local blueberry jam. 

He tossed the sandwich onto the bed, left the rest of the groceries to be dealt with later, and grabbed his camera off the desk by the window. While he was at it, he grabbed the papers he'd printed too although just looking at them made him feel nauseous. His recollection of the incident from yesterday was very vague, just cut off broken strips of images, but there was an emotional memory there that reacted accordingly to the reminders. 

Venom was quiet again, which wasn't particularly uncommon these days, but Eddie worried it had to do with Aaron and the conversation they had after running into him. He'd decided early on that he was all in with his symbiote, all expectations of his life had changed in exceptional ways. He hadn't grieved what he'd left behind. And he hadn't lied, he knew that whatever could happen with Aaron wouldn't make him happy. But he feared to admit even to himself that happy wasn't always what he was looking for these days. 

On the bed, Eddie checked the camera first, slowly realizing just how much he'd butchered his story yesterday, how he could have easily given himself away by being plain stupid. He wouldn't go as far as to call it self-sabotage, but that wasn't too far off either. 

"V," Eddie started, staring open-mouthed at the first picture and then pulling up the next. "These are really good," he added with no idea why he was so surprised. His symbiote was smart, smarter than most people without a doubt, arguably even smarter than Eddie at times. Of course they would be able to handle the camera well once it had been properly explained to them. 

"He didn't move very fast," Venom said by way of explanation. They came up from behind Eddie's shoulder like they usually did, resting their head against his neck. 

"No, he didn't, did he?" Eddie said, his eyes glued to the small display. There he was again. Barnes. In his baseball cap and with his hand in the pocket of his jeans. His face in profile, leaning against the pickup. The angle gave away just how long his hair had gotten, something Eddie hadn't had a chance to notice before. It was tied loosely at the back of his head with strands falling down his shoulder behind his ear. 

In the first couple of pictures Barnes had his eyes on the motel and Eddie began to worry about his intentions until another person stepped into the shot. It was McFarlane's friend from the game table and the photos showed Barnes opening the passenger door of the pickup for him. 

"What the fuck is he doing?" Eddie wondered out loud, scrolling through the next couple of pictures. "Is he really just casually giving the older residents a lift now?" he added perplexed. "What the fuck." 

He stared at a photo of the old guy, waving at someone by the office door through the passenger side window, --most likely Frankie McFarlane and his partner, Bess's dad--, looking relaxed instead of scared or intimidated. Meanwhile Barnes went around the car to get behind the wheel. 

"He's behaving like he's lived here for years," Eddie noted and reached for his sandwich. He needed to think. And his brain needed the carbs and the stimulation that his jaws provided by chewing. 

"Did we do well, Eddie?" Venom asked and Eddie twisted his head around so he could look them in the eye. 

"Outstanding, love," he said, stretching his neck almost to the point of pain so he could give them a quick kiss. "We make a great team, no?" he offered, running the tip of his nose alongside Venom's jaw. 

He got lost in it for a moment and, judging by Venom's silence, the symbiote did too. When Eddie glanced up they had their eyes closed, half their tongue hanging limply and forgotten from the side of their mouth. With a gentle finger, Eddie teased the tip until the symbiote twitched and slid it back behind their teeth, their eyes, though heavy-lidded still, focused back on their host. 

"You think he's a bad guy?" Eddie asked then, turning to open the packaging of his sandwich and look through the pictures again. "Any gut feeling?" he wondered, then took a first bite. He held the half in his hand out over his shoulder to share. 

"This is dead, Eddie," Venom said a moment later, disliking the taste. A different kind of gut feeling. 

"I know, love," Eddie said, shifting his gaze from the camera to a piece of chicken on Venom's tongue that the symbiote was nudging into his view. He took it with two fingers, bringing it to his own lips instead. Venom made a point by shuddering as he watched Eddie chew on the processed meat although they'd witnessed him eat grilled, fried, dried or cooked meat countless times. "It doesn't make sense," Eddie muttered to himself, ignoring the symbiote as he took another bite. He probably should not risk dropping mayo all over his camera, but he was feeling a little reckless still, a little light-headed, some parts of his brain still not where they were supposed to be. "Either Barnes is an excellent actor or everyone in this town knows exactly who they're dealing with." 

* * *

"Come on," Eddie pleaded. He was shirtless, still warm from the shower and standing in front of the bathroom mirror. He gave himself a smile that was meant for his symbiote instead. "I know you want to." 

"It's cold, Eddie," Venom argued, still refusing to come out and do him the favor. 

"You-," Eddie started, unsure whether he should go down that road twenty minutes before they were supposed to head out. "You're literally from outer space," he reminded Venom. "And from what I've heard, it's freezing up there. This-," he said, vaguely gesturing around them, "-you shouldn't even feel." 

"But you forgot, Eddie, we feel what you feel," Venom reminded him. 

"So I'm dragging you down?" Eddie asked, feeling subtly offended. 

"We still like you, Eddie," Venom assured them and Eddie spotted himself smiling. His cheeks were a little rounder than they used to be and he could use a proper haircut. 

"I'd just want you close, that's all," Eddie tried. It was another attempt to get Venom to spare him finding something appropriate to wear and just pose as a well-tailored henley or something. 

"Closer than this?" Venom asked, making themself known by giving his intestines another twist. Not as painful this time but unnecessarily close to other parts of his body, -- his prostate in particular. 

"You know, for someone who can push that button any time, you very rarely do these days," Eddie remarked although he was well aware it was his fault, not the symbiotes. "But fine," he conceded, "I'll find a sweater to wear." 

He didn't linger in the bathroom, too afraid of that conversation he himself had started. Out of habit he picked out his gray hoodie although it was hardly date appropriate. There were only so many clothes he had with him though, and seeing Aaron wasn't that high on his list of meetings he needed to make a good impression in. Somewhat high, --his ego was still begging to be stroked after all--, but not that high that it warranted some special outfit. Other than Venom's skin over his own. 

The hoodie was clean which was more than he could have said for any of the clothes he wore while introducing himself to Venom. And they'd still managed to fall in love. Not that love was something he was hoping to find tonight. Insight. Insight and clues, was what he was looking for. Maybe some details on the mysterious Bess of McFarlane's and her intentions. 

He didn't bother to dig up a shirt, the hoodie would do if Aaron had a decent heater. Apparently, he didn't need one either way because as soon as he'd pulled the fabric over his head and down his chest, Venom did come out to wrap around him protectively, if not a little possessively, covering all of Eddie's arms, his tattoos and the lines of his veins down to his wrists, and the skin of his back and stomach even further than the waistband of his boxers. 

A compromise Eddie was willing to take without hesitation. 

"This warm enough?" he asked, fumbling with the strings at the collar. He still threw his jacket on over the hoodie although it was a tight fit. Aaron knew what he was getting when he'd asked Eddie out and he seemed to like it just fine. Not that it mattered. It didn't. 

"If you leave it on," Venom remarked in a tone Eddie hadn't realized he'd missed this much. He still laughed, nodding at the not-so-subtle hint. 

"Got it," Eddie told them, pocketing his keys. "The clothes stay on." 

* * *

"You look good," Aaron told him, flashing him a smile as he stepped back and opened the door wider. 

"And you-," Eddie started as he stepped in with a smile. "You have a house." 

"I do have a house," Aaron said. He took Eddie's jacket from him, hanging it by the door. 

Somehow Eddie hadn't expected Aaron, --Aaron who had stayed at the motel while passing through town--, to have settled in Easbell in such a definite, profound way. 

"You hate it?" Aaron asked, gesturing for Eddie to discover more of his home. 

"No," Eddie said, shaking his head for emphasis. "I'm just surprised at the level of commitment." 

"It was love at first sight," Aaron told him and Eddie didn't doubt it. 

The house stood alone at the end of the street. It had a beautiful porch that Eddie had stepped on feeling slightly intimidated, illuminated by a single lantern overhead and a tender row of seasonal fairy lights. 

The living room had a wooden ceiling and a fireplace, a combination that didn't sit too well with Eddie. He had developed an eye for fire safety ever since Venom. 

He stepped on a heavy carpet, hesitating, then he looked back at Aaron, unsure whether he should have taken off his shoes. They were still somewhat dirty from his nightly activities. 

"Don't worry about it," Aaron said calmly. Everything about him was calm. Unsettlingly calm. Disarmingly calm. 

Eddie hadn't been on a date in ages, but everything about Aaron oozed that he knew what he was doing. And Eddie was tempted to relinquish control, to let him take the lead. Let Aaron make this night happen for them in any way he wanted. 

"Wine?" Aaron asked, but Eddie shook his head. 

"Car," he just said, nodding towards the driveway. 

Aaron mirrored his nod, seemingly unfazed. Maybe he'd been expecting as much. "I'll mix you a drink," he said instead, stepping past Eddie to make his way to the open kitchen. "Like the one from the other night." 

To buy himself a couple of minutes and get himself together Eddie bent down after all and unlaced his shoes. Leaving them in the same spot, he joined Aaron in just his socks at the narrow bar counter that separated the kitchen from the dining area and the living room space behind it. 

"Wouldn't say no to that," he said, shifting a little awkwardly from side to side. 

"Make yourself at home," Aaron told him. "You can sit here and watch me-," he offered, pointing to one of the chairs, "-or take a look around. You can get comfortable on the couch," he added although the tone in his voice revealed that he knew how cheesy that suggestion sounded. 

"I take the chair," Eddie decided, planting himself down to watch Aaron work his magic.

"Great," Aaron said. He gave Eddie another smile before heading for the fridge. "I'm going to get dinner ready too, if you don't mind." 

"Sounds great," Eddie told him. He hoped the food would be convincing so that Venom wouldn't hold this night against him for ages. 

"So," Aaron started. He placed an empty glass on the countertop in front of Eddie and then turned to gather the ingredients he needed. "Eddie," he said, letting the name roll off his tongue in a way Eddie didn't exactly hate to notice. "Where you're from?" 

"San Francisco," Eddie said, figuring his best bet would be to stay as close to the truth as possible. He didn't want to talk about what happened in New York. "But I've been all over." 

Aaron inhaled sharply and slapped his palm over his chest. " A drifter," he exclaimed, going for a shocked expression before he grinned. 

Eddie returned it. He liked the way Aaron didn't seem too serious about this. Sincere, yes, but not serious. It made him relax, made him slowly set his worries aside. 

"Shouldn't have invited you into my home," Aaron joked, pouring some lemon squeeze into the mixer.

"I won't eat you," Eddie assured him. It was a poor attempt to get Venom involved. Get him to protest the promise, be sarcastic, anything. But nothing. His head remained silent aside from his own thoughts. 

"I'm sure some people in town wouldn't mind the drama," Aaron said, adding ice and juice to the drink. "Nothing ever happens here during the winters." 

Eddie cocked his head, trying to figure out if Aaron genuinely believed that or whether he was selling Eddie a lie for whatever reason. 

"I bet," he said. "A shame though with all that beautiful wild nature right there." He felt like he'd overdone it a bit with his wistful glance out the window, but Aaron hadn't even looked up. 

"You don't mind if I drink, do you?" Aaron asked and somehow the question surprised Eddie. 

"Go ahead," he told him and then watched Aaron fetch another glass to place on the bar before opening a bottle of caribbean rum. 

His gaze lingered on Aaron's hands for maybe a little too long, but he enjoyed their skilled movements, the precision, the confident touch along the bottle necks. He used to have trouble with a couple of fingers after an accident with an old bike, but Venom had fixed all that within the first week. Not fixed, but substituted. Eddie had no doubt that most of his old injuries, aches and stiffened joints would return if the symbiote and him were ever to be separated. 

"You're making me nervous," Aaron remarked casually as he poured the alcohol into his glass. 

Eddie blinked in surprise looking back and forth between Aaron's face and the glass in front of him. He was pretty sure pouring the rum first and plainly was bad bartending etiquette. Somehow his brain felt more confident to focus on that fact rather than Aaron's words. 

"Don't worry," Aaron told him. Apparently he'd noticed Eddie's reaction. "The good kind of nervous," he added, filling Eddie's glass first before topping his drink with the syrupy juice mixture. 

This didn't make things any easier for Eddie whose head felt entirely deserted now. He held Aaron's gaze, possibly looking a little stupid with no reply at hand. 

He reached for the glass just for something to do, feeling a little hot underneath his sweater. 

"Me?" he asked then, shaking his head. He hadn't made people nervous since The Brock Report was taken off the air. 

"You eat chicken?" Aaron asked. He watched Eddie expectantly as he took a sip off his drink. 

The sudden change in topic made Eddie feel startled and grateful at once. He nodded, knowing that, --despite the sandwich earlier--, Venom sometimes liked a good chicken. Even a dead one. 

"I love chicken," Eddie said, playing with his drink like he had in the bar. He didn't know what to say and that happened only rarely. 

He liked Aaron but he barely knew him. He didn't trust him yet although he wanted to. On top of that, he hadn't forgotten just how royally he'd fucked things up with Anne just for a story. For her, it had been over six years ago, for Eddie it was almost yesterday. He didn't like using people, not anymore, but at times it was inevitable. 

"Can I still take a look around?" Eddie asked but he kept his eyes on Aaron for the moment. He didn't want to get ahead of himself. 

"If you don't judge too harshly," Aaron said, leaning a little closer, but then seemed to reconsider. He didn't want to get ahead of himself either. "Some of those books were gifts." 

Eddie shook his head, laughing softly. "Don't worry," he told Aaron, "I probably won't know any of them." He said it lightly, but there was some truth to it. There's only so much you can catch up after losing half a decade. And contemporary literature hadn't been on top of the list of Eddie's priorities. 

"Was this your first place after leaving the inn?" Eddie asked, standing to stroll through the room. 

"Second," Aaron said. He watched Eddie for a moment before he cleared his throat and started rummaging through his kitchen again. 

"Is the pizza place yours?" Eddie wondered, passing the book shelf with only little interest. He recognized a couple of titles but nothing to be embarrassed about. 

"No," Aaron told him. "I just work there." 

"Am I the first customer you've taken home?" Eddie asked, looking back over his shoulder with a smirk. This wasn't supposed to come across as an interrogation so Eddie tried to remember what it was like to flirt. 

"Is that what I did?" Aaron asked back, looking up from where he'd chopped something green that Eddie couldn't make out more precisely from where he was standing. "As a matter of fact, you are," he said then without waiting for an answer from Eddie. 

Eddie nodded, but he didn't believe him. He just couldn't see him working all summer with tourists coming and going and not one flirt ending up here, in his house. 

"You remind me of myself," Aaron added. Quieter. Almost shyly. "That made me curious." 

"I'm just here for the wildlife photography," Eddie reminded him, pausing in front of a couple of framed pictures of Aaron with what looked like friends. He went over each of their faces, but none of them looked familiar. 

"Yeah," Aaron agreed. "People come for all sorts of reasons. What's interesting is why they stay." 

"I'm not," Eddie said on reflex. His harsh reply lingered between them for a handful of uncomfortable seconds. Aaron watched him like he didn't believe Eddie either. "I-," Eddie started again, but he didn't know what he wanted to say. He didn't want to apologize. 

Aaron held up his hands. "Okay," he said, his tone was surprisingly gentle. 

Feeling guilty, Eddie returned to his seat, putting his glass up on the counter. "Anything I can help with?" he asked and Aaron smiled at him. 

"Not really," he said though. "Keep me company maybe?"

Over the next forty minutes Eddie discovered that he was, in fact, a fantastic liar, making up all sorts of details about his fake project and what he liked about this line of work in comparison to reporting. Aaron had never heard of The Brock Report before and Eddie managed to paint his past in journalism as something so stressful and disheartening that he wouldn't ever want to get back into it. He spoke so convincingly that by the time Aaron got the chicken pot out the oven, Eddie almost believed it. 

Over dinner, Eddie briefly mentioned his engagement and the breakup, thinking there was a chance Aaron would try and google his name and find out anyway. Part of him wanted to drop the hint about his bisexuality just to see how Aaron would react. Not that it mattered, not really. It was just about finding out what kind of person he was, making sure Eddie hadn't been wrong about his perception. 

"So everyone's got a chance with Eddie Brock," Aaron remarked, but he was smiling as he said so. 

"Literally everyone," Eddie agreed, his fingers slipping past the cuff of his hoodie to make contact with the symbiote. He didn't mean it. 

Recently, since Venom, no one had a chance with Eddie Brock. Not really. What Eddie had meant to say was that he had been so indifferent to gender that he'd fallen in love with an alien instead. And that this alien had turned out to be the real deal. Turned out to be 'the one'. That was how little Eddie cared about things like clothes and hair and body parts. 

Beneath his sweater, Venom pulled away from him, baring to Eddie's fingertips only his own skin. 

"You okay?" Aaron asked, noticing the change in Eddie's expression. "I don't think there's anything wrong with that." 

Eddie nodded and reached for some of the bread to distract himself. "This is really good, you know?" he deflected, soaking his bread in the sauce. Once again, he'd probably eaten more than he should have, adding to his plate even after he was full. He was feeling a little too comfortable at Aaron's table, in his home. 

"I'll pass it on to the chef," Aaron said with a smile. 

"Let me do the dishes," Eddie offered although he hated doing the dishes and was abysmally bad at it. 

Aaron leaned in again, in his tempting flirty ways, but it was never uncomfortably close or intimidating. "The house came with a dishwasher," he let Eddie know in a conspiratorial whisper. Then he smiled again. 

"Thank God," Eddie said, mirroring him in tone and expression. He didn't choose to close the distance between them although the moment would have allowed it. 

Instead, he made motions to finish up, ready to help clear the table. Aaron let him diffuse the tension like that without another word, let Eddie carry the dishes into the kitchen and only let him know about his ongoing interest by brushing his palm over Eddie's lower back as he passed him. Eddie flinched but at the same time he could feel Venom dodging the touch and somehow the sensation filled him with more relief than he could process at once. 

When Eddie passed the fridge, he stopped suddenly, something stuck to the door catching his eye. It was a photo of Aaron at the beach, but that wasn't what had pulled Eddie's attention. It was the car behind him. A truck. A pickup truck. 

"Is this yours?" Eddie asked, tipping on the familiar vehicle with a finger. He tried his best to make the question sound casual and innocent but it was difficult to tell whether he succeeded. 

Aaron put down the dishes he was handling and wiped his hands on a paper towel while he stepped over, coming up next to Eddie.

"Yeah, that's my truck," he confirmed. They had quite a bit of height difference between them, so it was only the center of Aaron's biceps that rested warmly against Eddie's shoulder. 

"Vintage," Eddie remarked. He knew he was better off breaking the touch by stepping to the side, but he didn't want Aaron to be focusing on the conversation too much. So instead, he leaned into the contact. 

"Yeah it's a bit of work, but I got the time," Aaron told him. His voice had dropped lower, the proximity between them causing new tension. 

"I think I noticed it at the motel once," Eddie said, determined to walk that thin line towards its end. "I was surprised it was still running through these freezing temperatures. If I had known it was yours I might have come up," he turned to look at Aaron whose eyes were still on the photo. "And ask you out myself," he added for more obfuscation. 

At that Aaron brought his gaze from the fridge to Eddie's face. 

"You wouldn't have got me though," Aaron said and Eddie had to fight every impulse in order to keep himself calm. "A friend borrowed it from me," Aaron explained and Eddie swallowed. 

_A friend_. 

Either Aaron was lying to him or he'd just called James Barnes a friend. 

"Good thing I didn't then," Eddie told him, surprised that his voice didn't give away his state of mind. All that lying from before had prepared him for that moment. 

Aaron leaned in dangerously close but Eddie couldn't pull away. He wanted to, most of him wanted to but his body didn't move. 

They were already so deep into each other's space, there was no leeway to pretend they weren't heading directly for a kiss. Eddie could feel the sweat building up at the back of his neck and around the edges of his forehead. 

Eddie closed his eyes, silently begging Venom to give him an out. Some noise, something falling off a shelf, hiccups, even a goddamn seizure. Anything. 

Aaron kissed him with tender lips, little pressure and no urgency. Given the circumstances, it was almost unnecessarily careful unless he sensed Eddie's hesitation. 

But it wasn't hesitation that held Eddie back. 

Being accommodating, Aaron didn't push for more, kept his tongue to himself. Eddie would barely call it testing the waters. And only seconds later, Aaron pulled back, just enough to make eye contact, to check in with Eddie before he spoke. 

"Stay," he said softly but as soon as he'd gotten the word out, Eddie was already shaking his head slowly. "If not in town then tonight," Aaron added, but Eddie was still signaling his no. 

"I'm not that type of guy," he told him. His voice was quiet but his feelings for Venom were not. 

"A sex on the first date kind of guy?" Aaron tried. There was humor in his tone but Eddie could tell that he hadn't expected to be turned down. 

"An available type of guy," Eddie admitted although he knew how it made him look. 

As if on cue, Aaron straightened his back and stepped back slightly. "You're in a relationship?" he asked and didn't sound too happy about it. 

"I shouldn't have come here," Eddie said, mostly to himself. To himself and his symbiote. His other. His significant other. His significant self. 

"Someone in San Francisco?" Aaron wondered and for a second Eddie didn't know what to do with the question. Partly because he didn't grasp what difference it made and partly because he didn't know what to answer. He had prepared to talk endlessly about a fake job, not a fake relationship, and there was no way he could stick close to the truth here. "I don't think they'd find out," Aaron added and suddenly Eddie understood why it mattered. 

"They'll know," was all he could come up with. "Sorry." He put the apology out there although he knew it would do very little to mend the damage he'd done by leading Aaron on. 

Aaron held up his hands again, his beautiful nine-fingered hands, and took another step back. 

"You know, Eddie," he started and Eddie knew instantly that the humiliation was going to swing his way now. "It's none of my business, but you came here. You're halfway there already. It's perfectly fine that we stop now but I just think your relationship isn't the reason why." 

He'd put a twist on the word relationship that didn't sit well with Eddie. Not because Aaron was wrong about what he'd pointed out but because Eddie was going to deny that there was some truth to it. The food, the story, his ego. Every excuse in the book. 

"I better go," Eddie just said. He didn't have anything left to argue in his favor. With a glance back at Aaron, he walked over to where his shoes stood, still in the same spot he'd stepped out of them. He left them untied when he hurried out, grabbing his jacket almost in an afterthought. He didn't stop to put it on. 

If he was going to have a crisis over this date, over this kiss, over the conversation that had followed, then Aaron deserved better than having it happen right there in his driveway. 

So Eddie needed to get away. All he wanted was to get away. 

He made it as far as down the driveway and onto the road before he stopped, just two seconds after the front door of Aaron's home was out of sight, killing the engine out of habit. His body was shaking from the cold and he could barely see the road through the frost. "Fuck," he yelled and hit the steering wheel a couple of times with the heels of both his palms, then with his fists. "Fuck, fuck, fuck. Fuck this goddamn weather." 

With a trembling hand he reached for his jacket, slid his arms into the sleeves then wrapped them around his chest, slumping back into the seat in frustration. 

"Don't you dare be angry with me right now," he threatened into the quiet void of the car, the force of his words accentuated by his freezing breath ghosting towards the windshield. Somehow Eddie sensed more of the silent treatment coming his way. "Don't you fucking dare," he repeated but could barely pull his teeth apart. "You let that happen as much as I did," he argued, then realized what he'd actually wanted to say. "We let that happen." 

"You can't just park here, Eddie," Venom told him, ignoring everything else. "You're going to get us killed." 

They were sounding so calm and reasonable it was almost annoying. Almost if not for the fact that they were right. He shouldn't be parking in the middle of the open road. At night and with dead lights. The last thing they needed tonight was an accident. 

Reminding himself to focus, Eddie took a deep breath, tried to relax his grip on the steering wheel and started the car again. He turned the heating all the way up before switching on the lights. Checking the dash, he sighed with relief when he saw that at least they weren't in any danger to run out of gas. 

"I'm gonna get us home," Eddie said, mostly to assure himself. He wished they had never left their motel room in the first place. 

Remembering his untied shoes and their unnecessary safety hazard, he tried to get a foot up on the seat only to find Venom curled up in his lap. 

"Aren't you cold there, bud?" he asked, wondering just a second later why he was addressing the symbiote so strangely. The car had already started to heat up but it would take another moment. He reached out to brush his knuckles over the pool of freezing goo to say things he couldn't get out just now. 

"Why'd you run off, Eddie?" Venom asked instead of answering. So they weren't technically ignoring him but the dismissal still stung. At least they allowed Eddie to touch them all over. 

"You know why," Eddie just told them. He let his head fall back and closed his eyes for a moment. Slowly the air around them began to warm and Eddie could feel the pull of exhaustion and sleep. 

"You don't like to share either," Venom prompted. The way they were stranded here didn't seem to have the same effect on the symbiote as it had on Eddie. They were wide awake and the discrepancy caused Eddie's brain to give him a headache. 

He shook his head and only opened his eyes a second later. "No, love," he told them. "I like sharing with you. But I don't like sharing with Aaron." 

"He didn't know we were there," Venom argued. Maybe they had wanted to say more, but Eddie wouldn't have it. 

"I knew," he blurted instantly. "I knew and I didn't want him touching you, kissing you," Eddie admitted. He trailed the curve of the steering wheel with a finger, keeping his other hand with Venom. "I don't want you to know what it's like," Eddie forced out, his voice didn't have his strength though. "With anyone else but me." His words were mere whispers in the car, the confession filling him with shame. 

Eddie could tell that the symbiote didn't understand why this admission caused their host so much distress. There was that one kiss with Anne, but that was different, wasn't it? That had been Venom's idea. That had been Venom kissing Eddie, not Venom kissing Anne. That had been just a kiss that led nowhere. That was before he knew how hard he was going to fall for them. 

Trying to collect himself, Eddie wiped the cuff of his jacket over his face. He took a deep breath, didn't like the snotty undertones. He wasn't crying, he wasn't. 

"Eddie," Venom addressed him carefully.   
  
"Yes, love," Eddie said, sitting back up straighter and fumbling with the keys in the ignition. He wasn't planning on turning them again, he just felt the need to touch something sturdy and sharp. 

"We don't want that either," the symbiote assured him. 

"I know," Eddie said, because he did. But he shook his head still. There was nowhere to begin. His feelings weren't linear or chronological. Sometimes they weren't connected at all, just fragments of emotions lighting up at random. "Let's just head back to the motel and get some sleep." 

He put the car into drive and put gentle pressure on the gas pedal. He was determined to just focus on the present, on the road, on getting them to bed. Anything else was for another day. 

"Eddie," Venom started again. Eddie glanced down to his lap to where the symbiote had somehow managed to roll on their back although they didn't have much of a consistent anatomy. But their eyes were upside down above Eddie's thigh and their teeth were lopsided and his tongue was slithering upwards as they spoke. "The chicken tasted good, Eddie." 

Eddie huffed, then laughed. Small mercies really did the trick sometimes. 


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Umm, soo, yeah, there's some monster-fucking ahead in case anyone needs to prepare themselves 🙈 .

Once they were parked in front of the motel, Eddie pulled his bag from the backseat, all of the stuff he'd taken with him as a precaution, and then decided to scoop Venom up in his free arm and carry them to their room. 

There was no good reason for it other than that he wanted to and that he didn't mind the extra baggage. If someone saw him heading back for his room in the dark, he could just pass the symbiote off for a stray cat. 

It was risky still, dangerous, and so fucking cold that both his hands were burning up with pain even before he reached the door. But Eddie didn't want to be alone, physically. He wanted Venom to stay outside their body. He wanted to touch them and hold them. Look at them too. 

Luckily, Venom leaned into the touch, embracing most of Eddie's arm in return although they didn't add a layer of warmth. They just added mass to the chunk of symbiote he was carrying until they'd gathered a proper weight. 

"I'm not the only one getting heavier, huh?" Eddie commented, but he was smiling. His lips felt too stiff to do so though, and he worried about the disturbing shapes his face was torn into as he hurried to get inside. 

"Do you like it too, Eddie?" Venom asked and Eddie found himself nodding. The fresh air was clearing his lungs of tension and his throat of lumps, and although it was hardly possible, he thought he could hear the waves crash in the distance, thought he could summon another storm. Still, it was no weather for them to linger outside. Not tonight. 

"Of course, love," he said, squeezing the symbiote gently. "I love all of you." He was still smiling when he stopped abruptly, something in his sight throwing him off. 

There was a plastic bag tied to the knob of their door and Eddie took a quick look around. Everything was quiet and neither he nor Venom had picked up on some unexpected company. 

Cautiously, he tucked on one side of the plastic so he could glance inside, but unfortunately it was way too dark for him to make out anything. 

"It's more towels, Eddie," Venom let him know. It wasn't too dark for them. "And food," they added excitedly. If they'd had a tail, Eddie was sure it'd be wagging right now. 

"Food?" he echoed, then realized that the old McFarlane must have taken pity on him once more. "Then we'll better get it inside." There was no need to attract rats or raccoons although Eddie figured Venom wouldn't mind an additional snack. However, pretending to be a wildlife photographer wasn't without side effects and he felt oddly protective towards the local fauna all of a sudden. 

Inside, it was welcoming warm and Eddie almost teared up with how much he felt like coming home. He switched the lights on and placed Venom down onto the bed, the plastic bag beside them. His own duffle he put down on the floor by the desk. 

Once he'd gotten rid of his jacket, Eddie discovered that Venom had been mistaken. That McFarlane had put a set of clean sheets, not towels, in the bag, and that he had slipped a note in as well. 

"Vending machine is broken," Eddie read out loud. "Fresh sheets just in case." He shook his head although he appreciated the gesture. 

It spoke volumes about the old man and his principles that he hadn't just used his key and put the stuff inside the room. He didn't think anyone else would have done it in his place. 

Thinking he'll deal with it later, Eddie tossed the bedding on the desk and instead checked the rest of the bag's contents. 

"I didn't even know there was a vending machine," he remarked, tearing open a small pack of nuts. Then he sorted out all the items that contained chocolate, stacking it on the nightstand where Venom could get to it any time they wanted. 

It wasn't that they were shy to go through the fridge or freezer at home but he wanted the symbiote to know that what he didn't put away was for them specifically. 

McFarlane had added two juice boxes that were frozen when Eddie shook them, and a full-sized bottle of water to the bottom of the bag that somehow managed to stay mostly liquid. The more Eddie looked at those now, the more he doubted there had ever been a vending machine in the first place. 

Although Easbell had tourists coming and going, it seemed that every now and then this town really made an effort to convince people to stay. He wondered how many more had started out in this motel, pictured Barnes and Rogers in this very room, planning their escape, --to somewhere in Canada or maybe Alaska--, only for McFarlane to realize they were young and gay and in a tight situation. And him deciding to help. Like he always did. Setting them up with a house, safe enough to last a full winter, and a car for them to conveniently drive his friends around after card game afternoons. 

Eddie decided then that it was time to sit down with the old man and see what kind of stories the motel owner had to tell. 

When he looked up, Venom was already fumbling with the remote, a very decisive tendril picking their favorite channel. They were drawn tight and upright, a little black ghost with wide glossy eyes that reflected the colored lights of the TV, their tongue dangling down the side of their mouth again. 

They looked comfortable enough here. Almost making themself at home. But Eddie knew they missed San Francisco, they missed Annie and Dan and Mrs. Chen's convenience store. And he did too. 

Shaking himself loose of those feelings, Eddie got his phone and wallet out of his pockets, then shrugged out of his jeans and pulled off his socks. He looked down at his bare legs and feet, picturing for a moment what could have been. Him all tangled up in Aaron's sheets, his knee between Eddie's, his toes against his ankles. The image of Venom wedged between them made him angry though, jealous again, and he knew that it couldn't have happened and that it never would. Ever. 

Venom hadn't moved from their spot. They were still caught up in whatever they were watching today or pretending to not have noticed his thoughts to be polite. Eddie rubbed his neck before he staggered over to the bed, keeping the hoodie for warmth. He didn't want Venom wrapped all around him tonight. He wanted them at his side, as separate and individually as they allowed. As their bond allowed. He just wanted to have them without having himself for a bit. He mostly wanted to forget about himself. 

"Is this the same show from before?" Eddie asked. He was somewhat determined to follow escapism where it would lead although his thoughts weren't with the broadcast. 

"It's the season finale," Venom informed him. They took on the shape of something that vaguely resembled a body pillow as soon as Eddie touched the mattress and he wrapped his arms around them, pulling them close. 

With his eyes closed, he put his lips on the back of their head, breathing them in. Sometimes, when Eddie was particularly worried about the state of their relationship or Venom's wellbeing, he would swear the symbiote smelled like early New Year's morning or the fifth of July at dawn. Or the night he'd almost lost them. Like cold fireworks and an empty space where hope had been. It was how they smelled tonight. 

"I won't say a word then," he told them softly, his voice a whisper, words swallowed by his mouth pressed against his symbiote while he fought off tears. With shaky fingers, he traced invisible lines on the symbiote's skin, spelled out random letters and words but mostly I-love-yous. He didn't want to talk. 

The symbiote vibrated, purred, something they had picked up from Mr. Belvedere before the snap, their cat, --no, Annie's cat, Anne's and Dan's--, who was far too old but somehow still lived his best life at their new place. Eddie had been taken back at first, but then had grown quite fond of it. Venom liked it particularly because it slowed Eddie's heartbeat while still making his brain produce endorphins. It was healthier than chasing him from one high to the next. However, Eddie couldn't remember the last time Venom had done it since the snap and so it brought new tears to his eyes. 

He pressed his body against Venom, eyes shut tight as he let his hand move along the symbiote's side. Their body temperature was always the same as his, and although Eddie figured it made sense, it was still odd. Touching them and his nerves barely reacting to it. Touching them and touching himself, it was the same thing and yet it wasn't. Tonight he didn't want to touch himself. 

He dragged his lips over the symbiote's skin, --it wasn't really skin though, was it?--, pressing the tip of his tongue against it until it dipped inside. The sensation was strange at first, always, but as soon as the first second had passed he usually ended up wanting more immediately. 

They'd barely had a 'usual' though. They'd done all things in all ways possible. They'd taken it slower and faster, been tender or rougher. They'd been loud and quiet, serious and playful, hesitant and decisive. They'd been sacramentally sweet and they'd been gross. Embarrassing and awkward. They'd been perfectly in sync. 

"Don't leave me," Eddie pleaded, his mouth half-full of symbiote. His promise to stay quiet was already forgotten. "Don't leave me," he echoed. The words were barely audible but they resounded impossibly loud in his head. 

Beneath his fingers Venom began to move, to liquidize ever so slightly, but Eddie shook his head. He needed to hold them, grasp them, cling to them. 

"No one's going anywhere, Eddie," the symbiote reminded him. "You're being dramatic." Despite what they said though, they hugged him back, slinging themself around his waist beneath the fabric of the sweater. The symbiote pulled him flush against their body, without slipping through his skin. 

"I know," Eddie agreed, his small laugh distorted by his snotty nose. He wiped it with his sleeve and brushed the cuff over his eyes, blinking away those stubborn tears. He was being embarrassingly dramatic. His emotions were all over the place, the contact and Venom's body however tipping the scale. 

His arms around Venom, his hips against the symbiote, spooning them from behind, his dick was hot and full and snugly pressed in between their bodies, --body--, and there was no doubt that the symbiote was aware of it too.

Gently, experimentally, he rocked his hips against them without much rhythm or finesse. Slowly all his fears were drowned out by how much he wanted the symbiote to be his, by how much he wanted them in the most archaic fashion.

"Can I?" he wondered hesitantly, his tone giving away his insecurity. There was no chapter in the manual on how to approach your symbiote for sex after going on a date with a different man. 

"Do you want to, Eddie?" Venom asked and Eddie nodded into their body. "Will it make you happy?" they added and Eddie nodded again. 

"So happy," he told them, his lips brushing against them, into them, through them. 

"We can make it more fun, Eddie," Venom offered. They were already bringing their head around when Eddie stopped them. 

"No," he said, a little too loud for it to pass as a tender interruption. "No love," he tried again. "Like this." 

Venom watched him for a second, then slowly moved their head back into its previous position where Eddie kissed the back of their neck as an apology. He knew it wasn't very creative nor was it even romantic, but he dreaded his own arousal and didn't want to spend too much time on it, knowing it still wasn't the same as before. 

He brought one hand down to the waistband of his boxers, almost dreading, too, what he was going to discover there once the fabric was gone. In one rough movement, he shoved his underwear out of the way, just down below his testicles, before pressing against the symbiote, desperate to hide his erection somewhere else. 

His dick was straining, sensitive and a little wet at the tip. Not that it mattered. Venom was always slick enough when he needed them to be. 

"V, I want-," he stammered, his arms heavy and his hands clammy. He needed Venom to hide his cock, take it in, let him get it out of his system. 

Nothing about the symbiote's body suggested that they'd heard, that they had understood. But it wasn't hardly the first time they'd done it like this and as Eddie placed his palm flat on Venom's skin, holding them gently in place, as he lined his dick up on just the next convenient spot, they took him in with skilled familiarity. 

Pushing inside the symbiote, it wasn't comparable to any other kind of sex he'd had before Venom. They were slick, but not too slick, tight around him but soft to the thrusts, winding and moving around him constantly, guiding, squeezing, stimulating. 

Eddie shuddered, his shoulders hunching on reflex. The TV was still running. All the voices and the action blurred into some white noise reaching him only from far away. Eddie was glad though because it masked his own noises, the breaths and the gasps, and the occasional whine and suppressed moan. No one needed to hear what they were up to. Venom didn't need to hear him. They were aware of all his emotions, his responses, even before they had made their way up his throat and past his lips. 

He had already been dangerously close just from entering them and he knew he wouldn't last long. His body swallowed the sensations eagerly, some knots deep within coming loose and allowing parts of him to finally relax without losing passion or momentum. His hips began fucking into Venom on their own accord, to their own beat, and Eddie didn't even try to take control of himself. He didn't want to be bothered with himself tonight. 

He placed kisses all over the symbiote, some of them short and shy, some of them wet and hungry. Their pleasure was his pleasure and he didn't have to think of himself if he focused on Venom, made it all about them. 

Sure, their body didn't react to the penetration, not in the way Eddie's body would have, but they reacted to being stroked, held and kissed, to being loved. And Eddie loved them. 

"You're so good at this," he praised them. "We are." He didn't need to remind himself because he hadn't forgotten, but he missed it, terribly so, the ability to let himself fall into step with his symbiote like this, lose himself in them, in both of them. Together. 

He could barely remember that or why it had been so difficult for him to get here, to allow any kind of sexuality to unfold between them for a while. Maybe to protect Venom from this exact kind of overdramatic codependency that he, too, was capable of. 

"Come on, Eddie," the symbiote encouraged him. Their grip on his cock tightening, the touch of a million tendrils maddeningly precise. "We want to feel good." 

The waistband of Eddie's boxers was soaked from sweat within minutes and he was burning up in his sweatshirt. Whenever he arched his back he rediscovered that the covers beneath him were damp too. He was worked up, he was already there, so close to spilling all he got into his symbiote, his other half, his better half. 

"My love," he said. His mouth, his lips, they weren't creative either but they posed as the sole defenders of the romance within him. He held onto Venom until his knuckles hurt and his fingers were halfway stuck in the symbiote although he didn't think they were supposed to. Supposed to be inside them apart from his cock, the spot of contact heated and wet, one moment from just sweat and pre-come, the next from his orgasm. His dick leaking, his balls twitching, his stomach clenching, Eddie shivering all over, letting his brain spill as much satisfaction as his dick. He pressed his forehead against his symbiote, cool to the touch now. 

For a second, all boundaries fell, all the lines between 'you and me', between human and alien, between host and symbiote vanished. For a second Eddie wasn't able to definitively tell whether he was doing the fucking or was being fucked, whether he'd been pushing over the edge or had been pulled. For a second they were one, familiarly so. They were one how it was supposed to be. Without exception. And Eddie fell deeply into all their shape, into every extension, every last tendril. Felt his senses expand. The wind outside and how it stirred the air just below the door. The temperature of the sheets and the shade of their steam pressed edges. The fading hunger, withering until it was gone at once. Leaving behind just the faintest breath of chocolatey satisfaction. 

As he let go, Eddie held onto Venom with his entire body, pinning the symbiote into the mattress with one knee and the press of a shoulder. Not that they could ever be effectively trapped. They let him. Which made Eddie wonder if they were technically role playing and whether Venom was actively into it. And with that he knew he was coming down from his high, their high and that Venom was too. 

"Can I ask you something?" Eddie wondered quietly, his voice soft but slow. His eyes were still closed and he pressed his lips against the symbiote once more. He felt some weird catharsis take hold of him, --physically, mentally, emotionally--, an almost unsettling state of relaxation. 

Venom seemed to pique up intrigued, but when Eddie opened his eyes they hadn't moved. It must have been an aftermath of their blurred emotions, the happy surprise seeping through. It wasn't often that their roles were reversed like that. Eddie being the one asking shy questions. 

"Always, Eddie," they told him. 

"Do you prefer being inside our body or like this?" he asked. He intended to just give the symbiote another quick squeeze when he tightened his embrace, but ended up just keeping their bodies pressed together almost uncomfortably. "Or do you like it best when I'm inside you?" 

There should have been context to his question, whether it was about sex or their general bodily arrangement, but Eddie wasn't sure himself what he was asking about. All of it maybe. He knew how strange it sounded though, possibly incoherent to the symbiote, but he couldn't remember the question ever coming up before. 

If he'd been the one expected to answer, he wouldn't know what to choose. This was nice, this was perfect, but there was something so ravishing about Venom taking control, being physically overpowering, and something just as addictive as the knowledge that Venom was literally in his blood, pulsing through his heart, through the veins on the back of his hands, through his teeth and his bones, that even his balls were swollen with symbiote at times. 

Venom took a moment to consider the question or maybe they were distracted by Eddie's thoughts. "We like being together, Eddie," they said then and he nodded in understanding. 

"We used to-," he paused, feeling self-conscious. "We used to share more, didn't we?" he finished hesitantly. "Like, thoughts and all that. Feelings."

The symbiote was quiet for a long moment, long enough for Eddie to start questioning why he'd even brought it up in the first place, before they answered. 

"We did," Venom said, confirming what Eddie knew already. "But then you stopped." 

There was hurt there and Eddie didn't need to be intricately connected to be able to hear it. To feel it. 

"The snap," he said, reminding himself although it was constantly on his mind anyway. "I wanted to protect you," he admitted. Part of him was ashamed now, knowing he'd most likely achieved the opposite instead. Made both of them more vulnerable. 

But he hadn't wanted to share his confusion, his doubts and fears. His inability to cope with those years they'd lost, his inability to adjust. He couldn't have lived with himself if he'd shared his depression and saw it affect Venom. Though eventually it had anyway.

Instead of answering, Venom began to spread out more, slipping from Eddie's arms without leaving them, tendrils and threads scattered all over the bed, around Eddie's thighs and knees and between his toes. 

For a moment Eddie thought that this time he would allow himself to melt into the contact for a change, give it all away, give himself to the symbiote, become a 'we' again, but then his phone lit up on the nightstand. There was really only one person who would be sending him a text this late. His editor didn't bother. He expected Eddie to keep him actively updated without being prompted. And Anne would call if there was an emergency. Just like he had promised in return. They weren't really on texting terms. She'd spent five years mourning him, then five days crying in relief once he'd come back. Then five months helping him adjust. Five months he had spent getting depressed instead. Not that he'd had a choice. Eddie had no doubt that the message was from Aaron, but he didn't want to know what it said. 

He wanted to turn back time. Spare all of them the damage of his bad decisions. 

"Hey V," he started, hiding his face in his symbiote. He was unsure how to do this, had no idea how to ask for what he wanted. He rolled onto his back, pulling part of Venom with him, then stared at the ceiling. "Can you make it hurt just a little bit?" 

This got the symbiote's attention again as they were slouching and drooping on Eddie's chest, and they moved their head up, bringing them face to face and their foreheads a little too close. 

"You said you didn't want it to be about that," they recalled correctly. Understandably confused. Or proven right. 

"I know," Eddie told them. "But this isn't about sex," he added almost defensively so. They'd just had sex. 

Venom watched him closely and Eddie knew it was because his body was sending mixed signals. He was half-hard again, --wasn't he always?-- half-hard when it wasn't about sex, soft for the longest time when it was. 

"Can we make it feel good too?" Venom asked, tilting their head as they eyed Eddie with curiosity. 

Eddie was about to say no, the instinct was there automatically, he didn't want to feel good. But he thought better of it. "Again?" he asked instead, brushing a finger from the corner of the symbiote's mouth down the side of their neck. He didn't think he deserved it. 

He may have realized tonight just how much he wanted to have Venom to himself, but it came at the cost of realizing how much he'd missed touching a human body that wasn't his own. At the cost of knowing how far he would take the boundaries of their relationship. 

"You're overthinking, Eddie," Venom told him and Eddie scoffed at the assessment. He smiled still, because the symbiote wasn't wrong. 

For a moment they were just gazing at each other, seeing the same thing, just different sides, different versions of themselves. Eddie hadn't known it was possible to feel this amount of love, of self-love, and still hate himself. But it was, and he could barely stand being looked at. 

"I've been a shitty boyfriend today," he reminded them, bringing both his hands up to cradle the symbiote's face. "Look at you, love," he said, watching the alien creature with a renewed sense of awe. "I'm so lucky." 

"We, Eddie," Venom corrected, staring back with that same expression. "We are so lucky." 

"Me a little bit more than you," Eddie argued, kissing Venom between eyes and teeth to make them stop looking. 

"Only a little bit," they allowed, their eyes almost all the way closed. 

"I'm sorry," Eddie told them finally. He had meant to do that earlier, about the same time when he'd apologized to Aaron. 

Venom's eyes snapped open at once but then they narrowed in again, holding Eddie's gaze almost hypnotically. "You weren't the only one, Eddie," they said then. "The only one wondering if you're still wanted." There was a small pause as the symbiote let their gaze wander down to Eddie's lips. "Like that," they added and Eddie's mouth parted into a soft 'oh'. 

He caught himself then and swallowed. Remembering his own rambled sentences out on the street in front of the corner shop. Remembering his own satisfaction upon being wanted _like that_. Remembering the moods he'd been in for the past year. Remembering the rejections when he hadn't been in _that_ mood. 

"So you're not angry anymore?" he asked. His voice gave away just how unsure he actually was. 

"We never were," Venom assured him. 

"I want you to be mine forever," he added, knowing he shouldn't be saying these things, --even if Venom didn't care--, because every mental health expert would tell them it was a red flag. 

"We want that too," Venom admitted instead. Eddie tried to fight the smile that was spreading across his face, but he couldn't. And he surrendered to it once he saw it reflected in his symbiote. "We want it to be just us," they said and Eddie knew he didn't stand a chance to argue otherwise. 

"Are you sure you don't want to watch TV instead?" Eddie asked, just to be on the safe side. He didn't want to hear about it for weeks although he probably would either way. 

"This is more interesting," Venom said almost threateningly as they slung more of themself around Eddie's arms and legs, then sliding his boxers all the way off. 

Eddie managed to relax for a second, but he could feel his heartbeat doing the exact opposite once he was half-naked and Venom's tongue was pressed against the underside of his jaw, slick and muscular but not uncomfortably so. The opposite even. 

"You taste good, Eddie," Venom said, plastered over his chest and stomach, taking inventory of his face with the tip of their tongue. 

Eddie scoffed like he couldn't believe it, but he knew that Venom wasn't lying. Their grip on him tightened in random places, careful still with their touch, only hurting when Eddie struggled against it. 

He ached for a kiss, strong enough to chase away even the faintest ghost of Aaron's lips, but Venom let him sit in his unmet needs, in his stupid mistake, in his uninvited yearning for human touch that he didn't want to have. That he hadn't asked for and swore to never care for again. Not after they'd met. 

Eddie's fingers were itching with the need to touch Venom again, soak up the texture of their body, let them seep through his skin where nature had made him most tactile, most sensitive even. Apart from those few other places, the ones that made him tense even more at the thought of Venom claiming possession of those delicate spots as well. 

There were tendrils sneaking up alongside his ribs, some tending to the tense muscles in his back and some all the way past the collar up in his hair, smoothing out those ruffled strands and teasing the curve of his ears. 

Eddie moaned into the stirred air, tilting his head further as he chased a tendril for a kiss when Venom's tongue disappeared. 

"Where do you want it to hurt, Eddie?" they asked, bringing their faces closer together again. 

Eddie watched the symbiote for a long second, rediscovering that their face had come to be so familiar to him, not just as a lover's face but that of his own. And looking at them now he saw as much of himself as of Venom. 

"Where do you want it to feel good?" he asked back, his throat tight and his voice strained. He was going to surrender himself for a second time. 

Venom's tongue was peeking out from between his teeth at the corner of their mouth again but they tapped its tip lightly against his cheek as they contemplated the options. 

The symbiote traced down the strings of his hoodie with a tendril, then over his sternum towards his belly button. Eddie drew up the fabric for more contact while Venom was kindling in his blood. There were sparks all over his body, over his skin and beneath. Not yet painful, just stinging, making him squirm beneath his symbiote. 

When they paused their touch just above the base of his dick, Eddie shook his head. It wasn't the kind of pain he wanted. And he hadn't particularly enjoyed it at the restaurant. Venom looked at him almost apologetically. Eddie couldn't stand it and he reached out immediately to nudge a knuckle beneath the symbiote's chin. 

"Don't," he just said, wouldn't allow for the symbiote to carry any guilt. Not tonight, not ever. 

Venom used more of their body to follow the trail of hair, gliding over his hips and between his legs. Eddie's thighs fell open without him consciously deciding to do so, but the look he gave the symbiote afterwards wasn't incidental at all. 

It was an invitation. 

Venom smirked knowingly, resting their head on Eddie's chest for a moment. "Turn around, Eddie," they said. 

The instruction surprised him, despite everything. He was nodding but he was stalling too. "What about-," he started, rubbing a hand over his eyebrow. 

"We ate all of that chicken, Eddie," Venom informed him. They sounded like he should have known that already. That his stomach was all empty. Maybe he was supposed to be hungry. Maybe his body already was and Venom knew. 

Eddie nodded again. He couldn't remember if he had ever worried about this stuff openly with Venom before. Having Venom around sometimes forced him to talk about things he wasn't exactly comfortable with. Or forced him to explain them in ways that were untainted by his own feelings and opinions. At other times having them in his head spared him from spelling things out he'd rather not address verbally. 

Venom hadn't called him a pussy for nothing. 

"Of course you did," he said before rolling over onto his front. His body moved so easily and found its spot so gently that he knew Venom was helping along. 

Eddie scratched the back of his head nervously before he pulled up the hood of his sweatshirt, closed his eyes and held onto his pillow as a precaution. It had been a while, but he had vivid memories of his own noises, moans and whines and desperate pleas. Venom would take him on a ride, --that was just what a tongue like theirs did--, and there wasn't going to be much he could do about it. It was going to be a long ride, too, since he'd just come a moment ago. It would take him a while to get there again and Venom wouldn't be satisfied with anything less than a second orgasm. 

"We like this a lot," Venom remarked from behind his ear and Eddie felt a bit more heat rise to his cheeks. 

He, too, liked this a lot. Although 'a lot' was a bit of an understatement for how much he liked what Venom had their mind set on. 

"Glad we're on the same- ah," he flinched and shuddered at the first touch of Venom's tongue, teasing at the edge of the cleft, just above his tailbone, "-page," he finished, then squashed his face into his pillow. 

Venom's tongue was hot against his skin although the symbiote didn't run that warm. Maybe it was him. Maybe it was his imagination or the heat between them. Maybe he had gotten cold. Their tongue was wet too, different from his own, but he was used to that. It didn't feel right to think it, but there simply was no better lube on earth than the symbiote's saliva. 

Venom ran the tip of their tongue down the cleft of his ass, past his rim and then up again. Did so a couple of times and then a couple of times more until Eddie had worked up the first sweat from the anticipation. He tensed each time they moved over his hole, fighting the urge to push back. 

Apparently, Venom was in no rush though, let him get reaccustomed with the sensation without ever getting used to it. Instead they alternated pace and pressure and just minutes later Eddie wasn't sure if he really had that much time left until he was going to come again. 

With the tip of their tongue slowly curling against his rim, Eddie felt Venom's teeth lightly pressing against his cheeks. 

Only then he remembered what he'd originally asked for. Just a little pain. His head hadn't gone there when he'd opened his legs for his symbiote, hadn't gone to their teeth. 

But now he found himself pushing back carefully after all. He wanted it. Both, their tongue and their teeth. 

He strained his neck, pushing the hood back down so he could glance over his shoulder, catch a glimpse of Venom. 

They knew what he was doing even before he got his eyes on them, bringing their head just slightly to the side before letting their jaws slide apart, baring rows of pointed razor sharp teeth all the way to the back of their mouth. 

Eddie's glance had turned into a stare, his heart beating faster, but his body was calm all the way down to his toes. 

"Not a kink," Eddie muttered to himself, the words slipping from his lips. "Not a kink, not a kink," he preached to himself but found no one and nothing willing to listen. 

Venom lowered their head again, their mouth, their teeth, and Eddie's hands curled into fists as he waited for them to test the limits of his skin. 

Definitely not _not_ a kink. 

Venom got the left curve of his ass trapped between their jaws, teeth pressing up into the soft flesh from where his thigh connected and down from its roundest spot. 

Eddie had no doubts though that the symbiote would later give his right backside the same treatment. 

"Fuck," Eddie cursed, when he felt the first sting. He still leaned into the touch, into the bite, into the pain. Offering more of himself to the monster in his bed. He tried to force his body still, to not be so fucking desperate for it all, but his legs twitched over every press of teeth against his muscle and he couldn't keep his fingers from clutching the pillow. Every now and then he went for his cock, only to find no path beneath his body for his hand and then brought it back up to the pillow again in sweet frustration. 

While Venom's teeth were digging into the curve of his ass, their tongue was still resting against his rim. And going by the light pressure of the touch, it seemed they were in no rush to work him open or push inside. The simple contact was maddening still, but now whenever Eddie tilted his hips or pushed them back he was met with pain instead of penetration. 

He didn't need to be this desperate, there was no way that it wasn't going to happen, that he wasn't going to come and wasn't going to come good. Venom had never not been thorough when getting him off with their tongue. 

But this was new and Eddie couldn't be argued with rationally. He was unable to process what Venom chewing on his ass did to his head. 

They were careful but they weren't gentle, teeth so dangerously close at times to that vital artery on the inside of his thigh, when they weren't playfully squeezing and pinching before delivering rough bites that Eddie knew were going to bruise him well. Yet his thoughts never got close to pondering a stop. He wanted Venom and he wanted their bite and he wanted their pain, wanted their tongue soothing all tortured spots until Eddie was leaking precome from his dick and tears from his eyes and the occasional drop of blood from broken skin. 

Venom's tongue began moving, just sliding and licking over his hole without ever increasing pressure, softening his natural resistance to the point of painful pliancy and surrender. 

"Don't stop," he pleaded still, through heavy breaths and a blurred vision. He was lost already, the sore skin and the aching flesh beneath, the delicate chafing that only the symbiote's tongue could produce when focusing on one spot too long. Eddie wanted them to go on, to never stop, to just have at him. 

When Venom increased the pressure against his rim just by the slightest margin, an unhinged moan slipped from Eddie's lips, opening an entire new well of arousal. 

Somehow, instead of encouraging the symbiote to push in further, it had the opposite effect. Venom stopped what they were doing, retreated even from his body.

"Do you like this, Eddie?" they asked. Although Eddie couldn't be sure, he felt like they were taking him in, the state of his body. 

"Are you kidding me?" he asked, trying to roll over onto his back until his weight pressed against his tormented butt. He inhaled sharply and then decided to settle back onto his front again instead, the pain lingering like a soft glow that Eddie would swear was just as warm and comforting as a candle's flame. "Yes, I like it." he answered finally. 

"Do you want the pain to go away?" Venom wondered. "So it won't be about that?" 

Eddie shook his head even before he found his words. "No," he told them. "It's okay." With the last of his strength, Eddie forced himself to concentrate although his focus was elsewhere and his dick was begging for relief. Again. 

This was going to be a mess to explain. 

"I know what I've said," he started, figured it would shorten this talk. "And I've changed my mind. This time it's okay of it hurts and we go on having sex." 

"This time," Venom echoed. They sounded a little confused, but Eddie figured this was a good lesson in consent based on situation and context. 

"Do you wanna stop?" he asked then, thinking he should take his own lessons seriously. It was only appropriate to give them an out too. 

"No, Eddie, we want to keep going," Venom said instantly and Eddie smiled at that. He tried to reach out but discovered his arm was only long and strong enough for a quick brush of fingertips against symbiote before he had to drop it at his side. He was feeling heavy and sore, wrung out almost enough to deprive himself of his second orgasm. 

Almost. 

But he was as horny and needy as he was sore and he didn't want to stop for the sake of his testicles and dick. 

"Then that's what we're gonna do, love," he told them, his voice softer than he'd anticipated. When he stretched out his legs, the pain was dull all around his ass but sharp with every shift of skin, tousling with arousal wherever he moved. "That's what we're gonna do." 

This time, it was only Venom's tongue though that returned, eager to deliver the pleasure they'd promised. Their tongue found all the aching spots on his asscheeks first, adding gently to the persistent underlying pain. Eddie realized he was making all sorts of noises again, but none of them compared to the groan Venom worked up from low in his chest when their tongue finally found their way inside him. 

The stretch was barely there, but Venom's tongue was long and so far they'd barely slid the tip in. Still, the sensation was overwhelming, despite him being loose and relaxed, despite the skin around his rim feeling sore. He'd forgotten just how good it felt, how much he'd missed this too. 

Venom pushed their tongue deeper, warm and wet and full of precise knowledge of Eddie's body, and before Eddie could get lost in them, all thoughts of guilt and lost time were fucked right out of him. 

The symbiote wasn't just licking him open, they were holding him -- still by his upper arms and around his legs, his cheeks apart and Eddie's chest down by his back. And they were grazing their teeth again over the tender flesh of his butt, making Eddie squirm on their tongue. 

Time passed slowly and too fast at once, the shove and curl of Venom's tongue working him into a haze, the stretch increasing in one second then easing off the next. Eddie felt constantly too close to another climax and yet incapable of getting there. 

It was just one of those lines the symbiote knew how to walk with ease. Another line Venom seemed to walk happily was between lust and shock, between sexual curiosity shared between a man and his alien and the abject horror of them actually having intercourse. Because Eddie was pretty sure, Venom's tongue was so far up his ass, it would show on his stomach if he'd been lying face up. And while there was a time and place for everything, he wasn't sure he'd wanted to see it slithering through his insides, touching places within him no human being would ever be able to reach. 

Pathologists aside. 

Still, Eddie didn't want it any other way. His body adjusted. Whether on its own or with Venom's help, Eddie didn't know and didn't care. He was feeling full and well stretched, wanted, --loved even--, and thoroughly fucked. 

He came quietly, just a short while later, but only because he had his palm flat over his mouth in an attempt to stop a couple of embarrassing sobs that had made their way up his throat for the past ten minutes while Venom was busy circling his prostate with the tip of their tongue. 

They didn't stop, not while his back was arching or his legs were twitching or his stomach was contracting, causing his body to curl in on itself. They kept their tongue lapping at him gently, playing with his rim until there was alien saliva dripping down the back of his balls and Eddie went mad with the tickling, itching sensation, unable to wipe it off. 

By the time the symbiote let go of him, Eddie was damp all over with sweat and his lips were swollen from where he'd bitten them raw in response to Venom's own tantalizing bites and the touch of their tongue. 

This time he managed to roll himself over, but flinched still at the pain. He looked down at his body but had no eyes for the state it was in. Breathless somehow, --his chest rising and falling in his peripheral vision, pain stirring from the epicenter beneath Venom's chin that was resting just above his spent cock now--, he was seeking out Venom's face, trying to make eye contact. They were connected all over, always, but he wanted their gaze, their physical, cognitive, signalled attention. 

Venom looked pleased with themself and Eddie couldn't blame them. Wouldn't want to either. 

"Get you back in the morning?" Eddie asked, unable to come up with something meaningful instead of a dumb joke. 

"You're tired, Eddie," Venom just said, lifting their head to move it a little closer. 

"Aren't you, love?" he asked, blinking through heavy lids. He didn't want to take his eyes off his symbiote. 

Despite the freezing temperatures outside, Eddie's body was warm all over, hot still in all the right places. 

Venom hesitated and Eddie could already feel his attention being drawn elsewhere, the TV still flickering behind them. 

"Go ahead," he told them gently. "Maybe you can still catch the ending?" 

Venom glanced behind them at the screen and then turned back to Eddie. "Are we watching together?" 

Eddie knew he was going to give in if they stayed like this, knew he was going to fall asleep even before the episode was over, before he had a chance to wash his face or brush his teeth. He eyed the instant coffee next to the mini fridge, but he didn't even allow himself to dwell on the thought. The tension it would cause between them wasn't worth it. 

"I'll join you in a bit, okay?" he offered, then tried to sit up. His butt was hurting, the muscles feeling tender and sore, the skin stinging and burning from where Venom's teeth had left cuts or puncture wounds. 

And he liked it. 

Before he had a chance to change his mind and stay with Venom, Eddie detangled himself fully and stood, hissing at the overload of sensations as he made his way to the bathroom in just his hoodie. Venom stayed on the bed except for a single thread that trailed faithfully after Eddie. 

With everything that happened in between it was hard to believe that just one day had passed since his blackout. There wasn't a trace of evidence left from his fall, but standing in the same spot still gave him the smallest chill every single time. He hated to admit it, but he rushed through his bedtime routine, telling himself it was simply because he wanted to be back with Venom already. 

He dropped the hoodie on the floor, then thought better of it and hung it on the door knob. He shivered, suddenly almost naked in the cool air and the harsh LED lights. He splashed some water over his face, rubbing his cheeks and then let his hands run over his chest and his stomach. His stomach might have been empty but the lazy comfort of being well-fed lingered with him still tonight as much as it did with Venom. But when he briefly thought of Aaron, he thought of what he'd said and some of the shame and guilt made its way back into Eddie's heart. 

Venom hadn't called him out on it later in the car, hadn't brought up the truth that had been exposed. Eddie hated being exposed. He was the reporter, the journalist, the one investigating. He decided where to angle the spotlight. Always away from him. 

He'd deal with his own shit in private, in darkness. 

As if that wasn't half of the problem. 

He turned to catch a glimpse of his backside in the mirror. There was a lot going on there and despite all the things he'd done in his life he felt his face redden before he saw the blush. There were bite marks all over his ass, bruises lurking to show more color in the morning, and the shimmering glistening shine of alien saliva all the way down to his thighs. 

He poked a little at the worst spots and when his heartbeat picked up he knew Venom would already be aware of what he was doing and how he felt about it. He hadn't noticed though that he was smiling until his reflection gave him away. 

"So what did I miss?" he asked as he was heading back to the bed. He picked Venom up from the sheets, well picked them up partly, like the edge of a very blissful, very gooey, very distracted TV-watching blanket, and slipped back into his spot from before. 

Venom was sliding all over him instantly, covering most of his skin. They spread out over his chest and up to his chin where they explored more of his stubble with a careful tendril. Somehow he got the feeling that they enjoyed the sensation as much as Eddie enjoyed running his fingertips along the smooth surface of their body or burying them knuckle deep within. 

He closed his eyes and fell asleep even before the symbiote could answer his question. 


	9. Chapter 9

It was still dark outside when Eddie woke up, covered in sweat and threads of symbiote. Overnight, the heating had overdone its job. The air was toasted and dry and tasted of vacuum dust. Beneath him the sheets were worn, smelled of sex and Eddie was glad he now had a spare set to change later. 

Even though Eddie got the sense that Venom was sleeping, they weren't entirely still. There was movement all over his skin. Indistinct and slow. Like breathing. Maybe they were soaking up sweat. Maybe reassuring themself of his presence. Maybe making a claim. 

He was thirsty, his eyes were burning and his tongue was sticking to the roof of his mouth. Despite the temptation to just ask Venom if they could grab the bottle of water for him, Eddie sat up and slid his legs off the bed to stand. Part of him wanted to take a shower, but the other was too tired, too exhausted. After stopping by the fridge, he checked the window, more curious about the weather than worried about unwanted company. 

The water was refreshingly cool when he took a first sip, his fingers slippery from condensation while he slowly moved the curtains to the side with his other hand. There wasn't much to see outside, but Eddie could tell it was impossibly cold still. The streetlights were on, blurry orange spots along the parking space, distorting the color of his car. It was still there though, the only one in the lot. 

When Eddie put his weight against the desk he flinched. The pain wasn't as sharp as it had been just a few hours ago but no less prominent. And the bruises were still covering both sides of his ass. 

The sensation made him reach between his legs again, this time to give himself a couple of lazy strokes. It wasn't his goal to get off or get hard. He wanted to be ahead of his body, pretend he was in control of his arousal. 

Which he wasn't. 

And hadn't been for a long time. 

Nowadays, it came and went as it pleased, and mostly stayed away. 

When he reached for his phone it was to check the time, but instead he was reminded of Aaron and his text message as soon as he had unlocked the screen. 

Out of reflex, Eddie glanced towards the bed, expecting to see some trace of Venom there but found it empty instead. 

Venom was with him, marking his body still on random spots. Most of the symbiote was inside, including their head and yet Eddie felt like someone was watching over his shoulder as he opened the text. 

> _Is it weird that I searched the entire house for something you might have left so I'd have a legitimate reason to text?_

Eddie smiled but he felt guilty too. Towards Aaron. Towards Venom. He reread the message once. Closed the app afterwards only to reopen it a second later and stare at those words some more. He wanted to reply, but he knew there was nothing he could do about their situation. Eventually, they'd have that same discussion from last night again. He didn't want anyone near Venom, not intimately, not sexually. And he would never be without them for as long as he lived. No one else was going to come close to his body again. 

When that realization hit again, Eddie wrapped a loose arm around himself, his fingertips ghosting over warm skin and damp hairs. He used to be drunk on self-love, on Venom's love, used to not get enough of the body they shared. It couldn't all be lost, it was just hard to access. Possibly because he wasn't sure he deserved it anymore. All year, he'd been a shitty host. 

He looked down at his fingers against his skin, traced the outline of one tattoo before connecting spots on his arm through invisible tracks. As he did so, Venom spun around his fingers like cotton candy, --threads thinner than silk and spider webs weaving between his knuckles, lacing themself with his fingers and putting themself in between Eddie and his own touch. 

"Go back to sleep, love," he whispered, brushed with his thumb against the fragile strands of symbiote. Without another glance he turned off the screen and put his phone face-down on the desk. He still wanted to thank Aaron for dinner and apologize to him again but he wanted to take his own advice first. Get some rest.

He fluffed up his pillows gently, unwilling to disturb the sacred silence of these empty hours. After considering the bed for a second, he straightened the sheets and the comforter, deciding to just sleep atop of them. 

"I know you don't like being too hot," he said quietly, maybe mostly to himself. Assuring himself that he did know. That he wasn't bad at this. That he knew how to keep a symbiote happy, healthy and well fed. 

Venom stretched out with him, purring faintly, so subdued by the puffy warmth all around them that Eddie couldn't tell for sure that it wasn't simply wishful thinking. 

"Are you dreaming, love?" he wondered, staring into the void just beneath the ceiling. The glow from the streetlights barely reached the foot of the bed. "You're restless," Eddie added thoughtfully. He was tired, but he didn't want to go to sleep. He wanted this night to last. They hadn't been this close, this patchy and messily tangled, hadn't been one creature rather than two in such a long time. 

There was no answer, as Eddie had suspected, but he still listened into himself a little longer. Trying to catch a glimpse, just the smallest, of what the symbiote was picturing in their sleep. Accidentally following them there without meaning too.

* * *

"Was it the ace of hearts?" Eddie asked. He grinned as he held up the card so Venom could see. 

It was just after nine, and he knew they had to get up soon. But for now, he was sitting against the headboard of the bed, still naked except for the spots of skin and body parts that Venom was hoarding. And he was feeling alright. Better than alright. He was feeling playful and flirtatious and attractive and in love. 

The symbiote cocked their head but Eddie could tell by their eyes alone that they weren't impressed. 

"Eddie," they started, rolling their head upside down on his stomach again. "What are you doing?" they asked while a sneaky tendril snatched the entire deck off Eddie's hands. 

"Hey," he objected, but it was too late already. "Why's your body like a gecko's tongue?" He ran his fingers over the symbiote who just made themself longer and longer until Eddie's arms couldn't reach further and he left them to it. "I was doing card tricks, love," he told them. 

"Tricks don't work when we share your brain," Venom reminded him, moving back onto Eddie's belly. They sorted the cards until they found one to study more carefully. Eddie used a finger to bend one corner back until he could see which card had ignited such curiosity. It was the king of spades. 

"Our brain," he corrected absently. He liked having Venom all tangled in his thoughts. It was how it was supposed to be and how he wanted it to be again. All the time. 

He watched Venom for a second longer. The memories of last night had been washing up to him in hot flashes all morning and they kept on coming. It was a good night. All things considered, it was still one of the best they'd had all year.

"No poker then," he added, scratching the symbiote's head lightly. His eyes fell on his phone that lay abandoned on the desk but Eddie wasn't ready yet to deal with it. Instead, he zeroed in on his laptop, thinking he might as well get some work done before getting up. "Can you use your gecko tongue body for good, love, and get me my computer?" 

Venom used a second tendril that was more like a tentacle arm to balance the laptop over to the bed without looking up from the deck of cards, attempting to shuffle it. 

The battery was still half charged, just enough to get a couple of sentences down and look at the pictures of Barnes and the truck again. Aaron's truck. 

On second thought, those photos could wait. 

He opened his draft and stared at his headline that just wouldn't appeal to him no matter how often he rewrote it. 

He'd tried a Bonnie and Clyde pun, then some Thelma and Louise, later went with the unoriginal fall of The American Hero™, then proclaimed a theatrical loss of American values at once. He used to be provocative at times but always smarter than that. 

There was no way he could make this story about outing a superhero, but his story still needed to be about more than just some extraordinary fugitives if he wanted to deliver something worthwhile. 

He put his fingers on the keyboard but didn't manage to come up with any words. Deadlines used to keep him from writer's block, put all of his focus where it was supposed to be. Now, he wasn't even sure if this story was going to get approved once he'd hand it over to his editor. 

"This is hopeless," he said and closed the laptop. He leaned back against the pillows and let his eyes wander to Venom, watching them with a smile. "I think we're due for some more research, don't you think?" 

* * *

Eddie didn't know whether the old McFarlane was in every single day nor for how long, but so far he'd been lucky every single time and there was no reason to lose hope now. 

He showered first, after the sex and the sweat it was non-negotiable, and put on fresh clothes. Although he didn't like erasing the traces of last night, he changed the sheets, albeit quite messy and without much attention to detail. 

McFarlane would probably hand them over to the local laundry and dry cleaning service but Eddie considered at least giving him the courtesy of putting them into the washer for a quick load. For now though, he left the pile by the foot of the bed. 

Afterwards, Eddie looked around their room, trying to find something he could bring along as a thank you or just to help ease into the conversation. He checked the fridge, contemplating taking some of the candy he'd bought and the chocolate bars neither he nor Venom had touched yet. But nothing appealed to him much and he didn't think it would make him look less pitiful to offer what McFarlane had previously given him in a gesture of human kindness. 

His eyes fell on the playing cards on his nightstand and he grabbed them on a whim.

Though the weather was milder than the night before, it was still freezing and as Eddie hurried towards the office he had little chance to prepare what he was going to say. He knocked gently at the door, but it was still ajar and dipped open by a handful of inches. 

Inside, Frankie McFarlane was hunched over his desk, a calculator to his right and a full paged notebook in front of him. On top of it, he had perched the spine of an open novel. 

Eddie smiled. McFarlane didn't seem to have heard him so he watched the old man for a second longer before knocking against the open door again. 

This time, McFarlane looked up and recognized his only guest immediately. 

"I came to say thank you," Eddie said, stepping fully into the office. The room was yet again a good ten degrees warmer than it needed to be and Eddie pushed up his sleeves to let more of his skin breathe. 

The card deck was still tucked between his fingers and being reminded of it, he held it up for a second as he hovered by the entrance. 

"And, uh, to see if you needed to kill some time?" He wasn't nervous, not after being a reporter for so long, but he fidgeted with the stack of cards nonetheless. "I saw that you were playing the other day, so I thought," he added but never finished the sentence. 

McFarlane's physical reaction was delayed but Eddie sensed an almost instant change in his spirits. It wasn't the time to get hung up on it, but he chose to believe it was a sign of a renewed connection between him and his symbiote. With his slim, wrinkly hand, McFarlane waved him over to the table where he himself headed in slow steps. 

"People my age have a lot of time to kill," he said as he made his way towards one of the chairs. As he walked, he supported himself on various items of furniture, either by pressing his knuckles onto the surface or by grasping the edges. Either Eddie had never noticed before how fragile the motel owner was or today was just a particularly challenging morning. "And having so little of it left, wasting it does feel like murder." 

"I better not ask how you know," Eddie said, relieved when the old man smiled at his joke. He helped McFarlane adjust the position of his chair once he was seated and then sat himself down opposite of him. 

Having forgotten about his bruises once more, Eddie bit the inside of his cheek to keep his face straight. 

He set the cards on the table and slid them towards the center, nodding once when the old man looked up to meet his eyes. When McFarlane reached for the deck, his hands weren't shaky, but the way he moved his fingers indicated that his joints were a little stiff. It didn't seem to bother him though as he began shuffling.

"I've met your daughter," Eddie said, putting effort into keeping his tone neutral but his voice gentle. "Bess?" he offered, leaning back in his chair. The wooden backrest creaked under the weight but remained steady. 

McFarlane glanced up at him for a second, then brought his gaze back onto the cards. "And you lived to tell the tale," he remarked. If Eddie wasn't mistaken then the old man was hiding a smile in the corner of his lips. 

"With all teeth and bones intact," Eddie added. It was too early to tell whether his impression would hold up but for now he let himself enjoy the old man's company. "She told me to leave." 

For a brief moment, McFarlane lost his rhythm and it took him a second to get it back. He shuffled the deck for a beat longer, then aligned the cards' edges into a neat stack and placed them in front of him. 

Eddie watched him intently. He knew it was a risk to bring up the issue this early into the conversation, but he had a feeling that McFarlane was already aware of his daughter's opinion of his one single guest. He had a feeling that it had prompted the bag on the door with its extra sheets and all of the food. 

"This is a motel," McFarlane told him. He adjusted his glasses before dealing Eddie five cards. "The room is yours for as long as you can pay for it." 

Though his words were meant to come off as detached, Eddie doubted he'd be kicked out even if he ran out of money. Unless Aaron had lied about his stay at the inn just as he had lied about his truck. 

"I appreciate it," Eddie said honestly. "It's not the worst place in the world." He couldn't bring himself to lie. To pretend he had fallen in love with down east Maine on the spot. He wasn't particularly fond of this place. But he was homesick for a place that existed only five years in the past and so it didn't really matter where he was these days. He doubted he'll ever feel comfortable enough to let his guard down enough around other people to settle somewhere. 

And yet the thought had crossed his mind. Find a way to come up with enough money to buy one of the cabins along the coast and live out here alone in the wilderness with just Venom. They'd be okay. 

They'd take walks along the waterfront and eat lobster for dinner. They'd spend the winters beneath the covers and the summers bare in sheets. Maybe he could write a book. Stay holed up for a year or two. If only the name Eddie Brock was worth something still. 

"You just got here," McFarlane said and Eddie nodded absently as he picked up his cards, pushing the corners apart so he could make out the worth of his hand. "It takes a while to take," Frankie McFarlane let him know as he turned the first card of the stack between them. It was the ten of hearts. Eddie's neck stiffened at McFarlane's words. He caught himself thinking of Venom. 

They were with him now as they always were. They were him. He felt their presence but not as distinctly different. Not as his other. Not like he had just a day before. But as himself. 

The two of them had had a rough start too. 

"Do you play often?" Eddie asked, putting that revelation aside for later. He wanted to focus on his investigation instead. "That little group of yours from the other day?" 

"When everyone's feeling up to it," McFarlane told him. "Like I said, you've got a lot of time once you're older, but you hardly have a say in how you spend it. One day it's the back, the next day it's the hip, and on the third it's both ankles that give you grief." 

"It's good to have people around for help," Eddie remarked. "And Easbell seems to have a lot of helping hands." He gave the old guy opposite of him a pointed smile to let him know he was included in Eddie's list. 

McFarlane didn't return it. He looked down at his cards instead, focusing all his attention there despite it being Eddie's turn to match or draw. It was difficult to tell if he was uncomfortably flattered or hiding guilt. Eddie chose to give him the benefit of the doubt and to discard the two of hearts from his hand. 

"That's a lot of trust for a small town," Eddie added and although he tried to sound casual, he could hear the darker undertones beneath his words. 

"If you're staying longer, you better get ready for snow," McFarlane said, changing the subject. He looked past Eddie out the window of his office and onto the parking lot in front of the motel. "You might need to put some snow boots on that car of yours." 

"And buy a new jacket," Eddie mumbled, quietly reminding himself and Venom.

"There's a store just down the street," Mcfarlane told him. For a guy his age his hearing was apparently unimpaired. "They sell all that gear for hiking and camping." 

"What happens to those summer cabins out near the beach once it snows?" Eddie asked, knowing it wasn't the smoothest transition and that his curiosity might make him look suspicious even in the eyes of the generous old man. 

"Where are you from, son?" McFarlane asked, matching the rank of Eddie's card with the two of clubs. 

"San Francisco," Eddie said, adding a date from five years ago just in his head. 

McFarlane nodded wisely as if he'd already known that information. As he should, Eddie thought, as he had provided his Californian driver's license at the check in. 

"We use snow mobiles to get where we need to go," McFarlane explained. "A lot of the houses are far off the road and are large properties. Deer hunting season is almost over, but fishing season is all year round. We're used to the weather. We don't mind the snow." 

From what Eddie knew about Barnes, the Winter Soldier was used to cold and harsh conditions too. And hunting. His name could be taken literally as well as figuratively. 

"Deers, huh?" Eddie said, although he didn't know the first thing about it. 

"The summer tourists leave by Labor Day but some of them are replaced by hunters who rent the cabins throughout October and November," McFarlane said with the tone of someone who wasn't concerned at the thought of strange men heading into town with trucks full of guns. 

"And afterwards?" Eddie asked, wondering if Barnes and Rogers had been posing as hunters when they first arrived here. "In November?" 

"Some of them leave, some of them stay," McFarlane said noncommittally.

"Some or most?" Eddie asked then. "I was thinking of checking out some of the cabins." McFarlane looked up at him suspiciously but Eddie kept going as if oblivious to the extra attention. "I can't stay in a motel room forever and I've heard some of the houses are for rent. But I wouldn't want to get accidentally shot just by having a look. Some people say my face is easily confused with that of a moose." 

Mcfarlane chuckled and although it released some of the tension in the room, Eddie couldn't help feeling a strange sensation just short of creeped out. Despite all the kindness and the hospitality the old man had shown towards him, Eddie couldn't shake the impression that McFarlane would find a way to victim-blame him if Barnes shot him on sight. 

With no matching cards at hand, Eddie drew one, then got lucky the second time and didn't have to forgo his turn. 

"So you're a photographer?" McFarlane asked, putting down an eight. "Hearts," he said, expecting Eddie to comply. 

"I am," Eddie lied once again. "Working for a travel and lifestyle magazine," he added. "Did Joey tell on me?" 

"Joey?" McFarlane echoed, sounding surprised. "From the diner?" he asked but then shook his head before waiting for confirmation. 

Eddie's mind went where he didn't want it to go, straight to Aaron. 

"You guys are easy to spot," McFarlane explained instead. Although Eddie wanted to believe him, he didn't. 

"How many of us stayed after finishing their assignments?" he asked with Aaron still in mind. 

"Not many," McFarlane admitted. "They're photographers. They like nature in pictures. The real thing isn't what they're looking for." 

Somehow Eddie got the sense that McFarlane intentionally spoke as if Eddie didn't belong to that same group. 

"How many tourists do?" Eddie added. He was thinking about Barnes and Rogers this time. 

"Very few," McFarlane said and shrugged when Eddie tilted his head in doubt. "In my experience, people just don't start over for nothing. They fall in love with places, they visit, they come back for vacation. It's only when a place returns their love, when it falls head over heels too, that they relocate." 

Eddie shook his head preemptively even before McFarlane had finished his sentence. He didn't believe in that kind of wisdom. People moved for work, on a whim, to run from themselves or the authorities. Rogers and Barnes were no exceptions. And neither was him. 

"That never happens," he said somewhat provocatively. If this town developed a collective crush on two fugitives Eddie needed it to come out and say so. He wouldn't even blame anyone. Some people simply were that good looking. 

"You're a lousy player," McFarlane diverted again. 

"I didn't know you could suck at Crazy Eights," Eddie just said. "Maybe it's an age thing," he added in a teasing manner. 

"I've seen men your age play better," McFarlane countered. 

"Oh yeah?" Eddie asked. "Recently?" 

"Every other week," McFarlane told him and although Eddie wanted it to be Barnes or Rogers, he instinctively knew that it was Aaron who the old man was talking about. 

"You never get scared working all day out here alone?" Eddie asked as he was forced to draw another card from the stack. 

"Not until now," McFarlane said, but he smiled at Eddie when their eyes met. "You ask a lot of questions." 

"That's because I have a lot of questions," Eddie agreed. 

"And, I assume, more than I can answer," McFarlane said so gently that Eddie felt it bordered on being patronizing. 

"I saw this guy out front the other day," Eddie said then, deciding to go all in as he matched another one of McFarlane's spades. "Pickup truck," he began listing, "a little taller than me, long hair." 

McFarlane looked up and eyed Eddie carefully. Before he had a chance to come to a conclusion, Eddie decided to use all of the presumptions for his cause. 

"Good looking," he added but intentionally kept his voice down and averted the old man's eyes in a nervous gesture. 

"I see," McFarlane said softly. "I'm afraid it seems he's, how do you say these days, promised to someone else." 

Eddie nodded understandingly while simultaneously attempting to show some disappointment. In truth and on the inside, he was celebrating a win. If Barnes was known to have a boyfriend, chances were one hundred to none that he had Rogers in tow. 

"I'm sorry," Eddie said, fumbling with his cards while still avoiding eye contact. 

"Don't be," the old man assured him. "You keep looking." McFarlane waited for Eddie to glance up before smiling at him encouragingly. "And I'll make us a coffee."

Although Eddie wasn't going to keep looking in that particular way, he nodded. He was going to keep looking for Barnes until he'd found him. 

* * *

It was late in the afternoon when Eddie finally managed to get his pants back on from a nap he'd taken with Venom and move the pile of sheets into the washing machine. The wind had picked up again and the temperature had fallen below thirty degrees. 

It was already dark, but the lanes behind the parking lot were still filled with cars when Eddie caught sight of a couple walking down the sidewalk on the other side of the street. He held his breath for a full minute, adrenaline pumping through him once again until the silhouettes stepped into the light of a street lamp and Eddie realized he was mistaken. Not that he believed Rogers and Barnes would just stroll through town. And yet Eddie had managed to almost run into Barnes two times before so the chances weren't really that low all things considered. 

Shaking off the tension, Eddie headed for the hiking-slash-camping store that McFarlane had pointed him towards. He still had some cash in his wallet to spend but he wondered if he could write the purchase off as another work expense. Staying clear of hypothermia was somewhat essential for him to complete his article. 

The store was surprisingly big and carried a variety of outdoor gear and clothes, and a handful of different brands with jackets in all sizes. 

Eddie tried a couple of the darker ones, knowing he couldn't risk being easily recognizable despite the fact that he preferred some of the more colorful jackets. He was grateful that no one bothered to ask him whether he needed help, because he wasn't in the mood to talk to another stranger. 

Just as he was standing in front of a mirror, wearing the parka he contemplated buying he noticed the reflection of one familiar face and turned around. 

Off to the side, slowly browsing along another row of clothes stood Diner Joey, his hands tugging on some item out of Eddie's view that he seemed interested in. 

Eddie ducked behind the rack of coats and jackets, pausing for a moment as a thought strung itself together in his head. 

"How much do you wanna bet this kid crushed on more strangers than just us?" he asked Venom quietly. 

"Wouldn't it have been just as hopeless though?" the symbiote argued and Eddie couldn't help but smile. He liked hearing Venom talk as though, --despite everything--, even the thought of someone getting between them was ridiculous. 

"Yes, but he would still pay more attention than anyone else," Eddie said, turning back up carefully so he could throw another glance over at Joey. 

Back at the diner Sandy seemed to have been getting along well with Barnes and Eddie was beginning to wonder if the bus boy had managed to strike up a conversation with him too. Wondered if Barnes had paid Joey the attention he was longing for. Wondered if Joey had gotten wind of the boyfriend, had gotten his heart broken because of Captain America. 

"I doubt he would outright fuck them over, but unrequited love might make him less eager to look out for them at least," Eddie pondered. He noticed he was still wearing the parka and was starting to feel the heat. He shrugged it off before sweating into the fabric although he had already made up his mind about buying it. "I hate to say it," he started again absently, "but we might have to grab another milkshake sometime soon." 

"Eddie!" Venom said, sounding both happy and surprised. "A chocolate one."

"Of course chocolate," Eddie assured them while hiding a grimace. In the past months he'd eaten a lifetime supply of candy bars and drank more chocolate milk than four classes of third graders in one school year combined. But with last night still lingering in his thoughts, he hoped to be able from now on to feed Venom regularly in those different ways too. For both their benefit. 

The cashier was about to ring him up when Eddie was tapped lightly on his shoulder and he squeezed his eyes shut for a split second, knowing exactly who it was before turning around. 

He did so reluctantly though, forcing a smile as he looked at Joey with raised eyebrows now. It wasn't that he didn't like the kid. Nothing about him was difficult, unpleasant or annoying, but Eddie's guilty conscience grew a couple of sizes with each interaction. And yet, just a minute ago, he had been deciding to take advantage of Joey's crush once and there was no need to delay the ugly manipulation. 

"Joey, hey," Eddie greeted him, bringing his gaze back to the clerk bagging his jacket to have some excuse to not meet Joey's eyes. He handed over his credit card with another polite smile. 

"Are you going to scout for more animals to shoot?" Joey asked, glancing towards the bag Eddie was being handed. 

Eddie's fingers missed the handle as he stressed and stumbled over Joey's words. 

"Uh, photography not-," he stammered as the clerk watched him with a bored expression. "No guns, no shooting with guns," Eddie rushed out but the clerk's face didn't change. Judging by their disinterest, Eddie guessed they were used to hunting and didn't care what kind of shooting Eddie was up to. 

"As if we'd need a gun," Venom remarked and Eddie shook his head trying to silence the symbiote's voice in his head for just a second. He felt his concentration slipping with the overload of the situation and needed to get his thoughts in order so that he wouldn't say something stupid or otherwise mess up. 

"I saw this cool elderly moose the other day," Joey went on, ignoring Eddie's panicked clarification. 

"A moose, Eddie," Venom chimed in only for Eddie to hear. "We've never had moose before." 

Eddie brought his hand to his face, nervously rubbed over his forehead and cheekbones, trying to give himself a break. The cashier handed him back his credit card and Eddie struggled to fit it back into his wallet. 

"I think it would sell well," Joey continued simultaneously. Just as Venom, he was oblivious too to the torture he submitted Eddie's sanity to. 

Flailing, Eddie at least had the foresight to give the bag another try, hurled it towards his body without knocking himself over the head, then gave another almost insistently innocent look to the cashier before he roughly nudged Joey towards the store's exit. 

"Please stop talking," Eddie begged, hoping both Venom and Joey would take it to heart. 

He was hit once more with the cold when they stepped outside. The freezing air, as thick as steam, forced its way inside Eddie's shock-tightening airways and he tasted salt with every inhale. Though the shore was further off, its scent was carried into town by strong winds. 

While they had been inside the store it had started to snow and Eddie's hands were already shivering and stiffening as he tried his best to zip up his jacket as fast as possible. He resisted the urge to just unbag the parka he'd just bought and throw it on. When he was done and lifted his gaze, his eyes fell on the all too familiar truck, parked at the side of the road opposite of the store. 

"Hey, Joey," Eddie said, waving him closer without taking his eyes off the pickup. The unexpected sight left him feeling uneasy. Made him feel watched and tracked. Paranoid. "You know the guy driving that truck over there?" Eddie asked and quickly pointed at the car across the street. 

"That's Aaron's truck," Joey said immediately, but it wasn't what Eddie had been asking. 

"I know, but he's not the only one driving it, is he?" he pressed. He glanced at Joey beside him, taking his eyes off the car for the first time since he'd spotted it. 

Joey swallowed and pursed his lips before he answered. "He comes to the diner every once in a while," he said eventually. Eddie noted the diffuse confirmation as well as the lack of names given. 

"Long hair, nice face?" Eddie tried to clarify. 

"That one too," Joey just said.

"And the other one is his boyfriend?" Eddie asked bluntly. He glanced back and forth between the truck and Joey's face, unwilling to lose sight of either. "The one that's with him?"

Joey frowned, then shrugged. Another non-answer. Another diffuse confirmation. The lack of proper response led Eddie to assume the possibility of them being lovers was neither news nor secret to him. 

"Is he your ex or something?" Joey asked, looking up at Eddie who paused mid-breath. 

"No," Eddie told him. He could have just lied. Somehow Joey had a talent for prompting good covers. But Eddie simply wasn't in the mood for another lie. 

"Then what's this about?" Joey asked. To Eddie's surprise, his face revealed only confusion and some insecurities. Eddie had expected to see more of an accusation reflected there. 

"Dude gives me bad vibes, that's all," Eddie said, trying to sound more casual now. He realized he should have just gone with the break-up story. It would have been much easier than coming up with another excuse for his curiosity. When Joey's eyes narrowed, Eddie put one hand on his shoulder. He had to reach upwards as Joey was a good three inches taller than him. "Stay away from him, okay? For my peace of mind." 

This seemed to startle Joey and it took a full ten seconds until he drew his eyes away from Eddie's and blushed. 

"I-, um, I will," Joey said, with his eyes on the ground. "They never stay long though," he added, trying to soothe what he believed was either Eddie's worries or his jealousy. "Usually take the food to go." 

"Do you know where they stay?" Eddie asked and although he had wanted to put Joey in this exact spot, he was still relieved to hear that the kid was going to keep his distance. James Barnes was the lead to his story, but he was a dangerous man too. 

"Up on the hillside in that remote season cabin," Joey told him. 

"Beach plum bank?" Eddie prompted. 

Joey nodded, then confirmed. "Yeah, that's the one. Are you sure he isn't your ex or something?" he wondered again. 

"You've been up there with them?" Eddie asked, ignoring the question. He watched as Joey's earlier blush deepened and spread over his face and neck. 

Joey shook his head and Eddie nodded. He hadn't intended to imply what Joey was assuming, but he continued despite it. 

"But you're sure that's where they're staying?" he pressed. Had to know for sure. Joey didn't react and so Eddie tipped the underside of his chin with a knuckle. Joey looked back at him immediately, then nodded. 

"Yeah, I'm sure," he said, even sounding subtly annoyed. But Eddie knew it was embarrassment that sharpened his tone. He wasn't going to push Joey further, but he had no doubts that the kid had followed Barnes there out of curiosity and infatuation. 

"Don't go up there again, alright?" Eddie told him instead. He didn't want Joey to get caught up in things bigger than him or get hurt. 

"I won't," Joey told him, looking pitifully scolded in his spot. 

"You're working tonight?" Eddie asked, mercifully attempting to rebuild some of Joey's confidence he had just worked so hard to stomp down. "I'll come by and get a milkshake while you tell me about that moose," he offered to Joey and Venom alike. 

"I'll start at seven and close again at eleven," Joey just said, but he looked a little better already. 

"Don't you ever have school or something?" Eddie asked. 

"I turned twenty-one this summer," Joey informed him. His tone reflected mild indignation but with some underlying resignation accompanying it. It seemed more people were confused about his age. 

Joey had that kind of strange disproportionate face and build that could put him at sixteen or twenty three depending on the features one chose to focus on. Either way he was too young to be pursuing the types of men he seemed to be crushing on. 

"College classes then?" Eddie offered instead. Eddie didn't think his words had been offending enough to warrant an apology. But he could tell that Joey was disappointed with Eddie's lack of reaction. He'd probably expected that information to lead somewhere else than into a discussion about his education. 

"I'm taking a gap year, okay?" he told Eddie defensively. 

"Working at the diner?" Eddie asked. He was still speaking when he realized that this question wasn't any less insulting and he could see Joey's mood growing sour.

"What's wrong with that?" Joey dared him to list his reasons.

"Nothing." Eddie assured him. There was nothing wrong with it obviously. An awkward beat of silence passed between them. "Are you saving up for something?" he added but the look on Joey's face told him that he could shove all of his questions someplace uncomfortable. "Alright, alright," Eddie said quickly, offering Joey a smile. "I'm not gonna ask anymore." 

"I better go," Joey told him, but he at least returned the smile. Albeit less enthusiastic than Eddie had hoped for. He still felt protective of that kid. 

"Okay," he just said, patting Joey on the shoulder again. "Get out of here." 

Joey smiled again, before he turned. After a couple of steps he looked back at Eddie. "See you later?" he asked, tone hopeful. 

Eddie nodded, but didn't reply. He watched Joey walk off and then brought his gaze back onto the parked truck. 

Firmly grasping his bag, he walked up to the road and crossed it in a stupid half-jog he couldn't keep his legs from falling into. The road was already starting to become slippery and he noticed the other cars around him slowing down. 

He checked his surroundings quickly as he stood by the truck, making sure there was no sight of Barnes nearby. Then he walked around the vehicle to throw a glance through the side windows into the interior. 

Squeezed into the legroom of the backseat, Eddie spotted a backpack. A couple of worn out newspapers were spread on the upholstery and an old jacket on the seat caught his attention because one of the sleeves was cut off at the shoulder. 

"What do you think you're doing?" someone asked from behind him. Eddie recognized the voice immediately. It was Bess, McFarlane's stepdaughter who looked back at him with a fed up expression. 

"Looking for Aaron," Eddie lied and a brief shadow crossed Bess's face. She hadn't expected that. At the restaurant, it had been obvious that she and Aaron knew each other and got along well. It seemed she took it as some kind of betrayal to learn that Eddie had gotten to know him too. Well enough to know that he was the owner of this car. 

"Listen to me, okay?" she said annoyed. "You stay away from this truck. You stay away from Aaron. And you stay away from Joey too." 

Eddie watched her for a second after she'd finished her instructions. Then he grinned. "Okay," he said, obvious to both of them that he didn't intend on doing either of those things. 

"Just leave already," she told him. Her eyes wandered down to his bag to give it a disapproving look. 

"Do you know what I did this morning?" Eddie asked, but went on without pause. "I had coffee with your step dad. And guess what? He told me to stay." 

Bess crossed her arms in front of her body. "You can lie your way all through town, but you don't fool me, Eddie Brock. Not for a single second am I going to believe a reporter like you is here to take pictures of a bunch of trees or the Atlantic seaboard." 

"Then why am I here?" he asked in a fake-friendly tone. "In your opinion." 

The silence that followed was everything Eddie needed to hear to support his conviction that Bess knew exactly to whom she and this town had given refuge to. 

"Just stay away from Aaron and Joey," she said again then. 

"I think they're both grown-ups who can decide for themselves," he argued although he knew he should just shut up instead of provoking another argument. He could feel Venom becoming more and more agitated with the growing tension and he didn't want them to snap and scare her to death. Or eat her head. 

"You thought it now, not me," Venom remarked on cue. 

"I know," Eddie replied. Accidentally, out loud. 

Bess eyed him up in irritation. 

"I know that they're both grown-ups who can decide for themselves," he added quickly to save himself. He didn't need McFarlane's stepdaughter spreading rumors about him hearing voices. And answering them. 

"If I see you touching Joey again, I'm going to kill you," she said, and didn't even bother to lower her voice for the threat. It dawned on Eddie that she'd been watching him from this side of the street since he'd stepped outside the store, rushing Joey out in front of him. That she had watched their conversation. Watched him touch his shoulder and face.

This time it wasn't Venom he felt rummaging through his intestines but his own anger. He leaned a bit closer, just enough so she would pay attention but not enough to risk her slapping him across the face. 

"I hope you gave Barnes and Rogers the same advice," he said calmly and quietly. She froze for a second, stunned by his words and Eddie took the opportunity to step away from her, heading back into the direction of the inn. 

He only looked back after he'd walked for a solid minute. She wasn't following him, but she was nowhere to be seen by Aaron's truck either. 

* * *

"Fuck," Eddie mumbled as he turned the next corner. "I shouldn't have done that," he admitted. "They're gonna bail and we can start all over." 

He knew he had to get back to the motel, pack his stuff as quickly as possible and then check out at McFarlane's desk for good. He couldn't afford to waste any time. 

Afterward, he was going to drive straight to the property where Barnes and Rogers had been hiding out and wait for them to make a move. 

If he was lucky, he would be able to follow them when they were going to leave town. At worst, it was time for them to get answers in the manner Venom preferred. And maybe afterwards he would have to turn them with the authorities. Write a different story than he had hoped for. It would still make the front page, of that he was sure. 

The snow was coming down wet and heavy by now, piling on the pavement while soaking Eddie's hair, his collar and the cuffs on his jeans. 

He was making another mental note to buy a hat the next time he walked into a store when suddenly he stood frozen. 

"Something's off," he said and promptly two thick snowflakes got caught in his mouth, melting on his tongue instantly. 

"Someone's in our room," Venom confirmed. The symbiote kept their voice in Eddie's head. 

Today both of them were in sync, sharing all senses and combining them. Today, Eddie knew instinctively who it was and Venom knew instantly that it meant danger. They were about to turn them inside out when Eddie stopped them wordlessly. 

His heart was pounding as he turned the key, he could barely hear his own breaths over its beating, the adrenaline putting pressure on his ears. Then he realized he wasn't breathing at all. He put one hand flat against the door and pushed it back gently, opening the room to their eyes slowly. 

With just the tip of one shoe past the threshold Eddie held out. Barnes wasn't playing any games. He didn't bother to hide. Instead, he sat openly by the narrow desk where the faint light of a street lamp from down the parking lot fell on the side of his face, highlighting his features gently. His eyes found Eddie's at once. As if he knew where to look from years of practice. As if Eddie was familiar to him. As if he'd been always standing there in the doorway and they'd been sharing the same look for ages. 

In that moment Eddie knew two things for certain. Number one, that Barnes would have been dead if he'd succeeded to surprise them. Venom was lurking just beneath his skin,-- angry and hungry-- and itching to bite his head off. And two, that he'd never loved his job more than in that moment. 

"So," Barnes said. He didn't move. Eyes sharp and captivating. His voice wasn't as low as Eddie had expected, but it seeped deep into his ears and memory. Barnes didn't look like he was dressed to kill, but Eddie knew from experience that violence could erupt anywhere and at any time. 

All of his body was still, sitting there in the old chair with Eddie's clothes draped over the back. The room was quiet too, as silent as it hadn't ever been before. Every piece of furniture under his spell. Under his control. Waiting for instructions. Then Barnes spoke again. 

"Word on the street is you're looking for me?" 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The second part is starting right back up. .. ... . As soon as I manage to come up with a title 😅


End file.
